Watermelons that can ripen after picking

Adaptation Projects Cucurbits
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Someone was saying, a few weeks ago, that we need watermelons that can ripen after being picked. I can’t remember who it was – @julia.dakin ? @Lauren?

Well, it just occurred to me that there are some! Quoting Carol Deppe, Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties, pages 5-6:

Part of the fun of breeding your own varieties is the surprises. Glenn had deliberately selected for a very early watermelon. Unexpectedly, “Blacktail Mountain” also proved to have unusual keeping qualities. Glenn found that out completely by accident. “There are long-storage melons, the Christmas types,” Glenn says. “I’m surprised more people don’t grow them. I always do, and I eat my last watermelons in February. But the storage types all seem to have that white rind. I’ve always thought of the green-skinned melons as an immediate eating thing.” Storage melons are harvested just under ripe and finish ripening during storage. But Iowa, where Glenn lives and gardens now, intervened.

In 1988 an early heat wave and drought killed all of Glenn’s melon vines, so he had to replant in late June. Then, the last week in August, came the torrential rains. The melon field was in a low place. It flooded. Only the earliest half dozen varieties had melons that were mature enough to harvest. Glenn grabbed those and put them in his garage. Many were not quite ripe.

Several weeks later, Glenn opened one of his “Blacktail Mountain” melons to look at the seed. To his surprise, the melon popped open. And it was just as crisp and tasty as if it had been harvested in its prime and eaten immediately. The melons from the other five varieties had long since turned to mush. Intrigued, Glenn used the rest of his melons in a storage trial. He found they kept nicely for up to two months. That’s not as long as a winter-storage type, but it’s unexpected for a standard green-skinned type, and it means that Glenn can eat his last “Blacktail Mountain” watermelons on Thanksgiving.

So, it looks like watermelons that can be picked a little underripe and finish ripening indoors are a thing, just like melons and squashes!

I figure that’s probably very good news for anyone wanting to breed for that trait. It seems like it would be a really useful trait in an environment where wild animals frequently try to steal fruit from gardens just before it’s ripe enough to be perfect to harvest.

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Watermelons don’t ripen after harvest. There is just some change in acidity that makes them seem more ripe after storage, but sugar level doesn’t change. It’s normal for all watermelons and that’s why any watermelon in store is picked before full ripeness. It seems that those watermelons were just better keepers and maybe faster to ripen in field. Personally I can’t see ripeness in watermelon outside and I only trust dates. Last year I accidentally cut one that should have needed some more days, but once I tasted it, it was even sligtly over ripe. Definetely could have picked it even earlier which makes it ripen about week earlier than I would expect from similar size in my conditions.

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I picked a watermelon yesterday that I thought was ripe but it wasn’t. I went ahead and ate the sweeter parts and composted the rest. I saved some of the maturest looking seed. This brings up a question. Does anybody know if matureish seeds in unripe fruit carry with them the ability of faster fruiting/lower days to harvest? I suspect the mother plant puts her energy into the seeds unequally. I suspect the best seeds are those who she feeds first. Therefore, if I accidentally pick an unripe watermelon, I get the benefit of knowing which are the first seeds to ripen. I have not tested this theory. Does anyone know if I am on to something here?

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I just started mine this year but the method of just checking for the dried curly-q tendril was told to me by farmers to not be reliable. There is also a small spoon leaf near the curly-q that also needs to go dry. And the blossom end of the watermelon itself will feel softer when you push on it when it’s ready. I have some drying curly-q’s already on some of mine but the spoon leaf is still green. Then there are the confirmation features like the yellowing spot where it lays on the ground etc. watermelon can be overripe where it gets a bit mealy around the seeds when you cut it open so I’ll have to work on my timing as well.

What method/s have you been using so far to determine to pick or not?

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It depends on the variety. For many, those tests work. But my F1 hybrids were all over the map. Some were ripe when the curly-q was only partially dry. Others were still green when it was completely dried up.

For “pure” varieties the patterns are relative clear, but it’s different for each variety.

The clearest universal indications I have found are the color against the ground, and the sound when you thump it.

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This is my first year growing watermelons. I thump, look under the melon, look at the vine. The main method I have been using is to pay attention to the watermelons each week. If I notice one that hasn’t gotten bigger over about 3-4 weeks, I begin to take notice and study it to see if I want to pick it. I am growing many different varieties. I don’t even know what most of them are when I see them. I am enjoying the surprise aspect of it.

The main driver on this is my sweet tooth and fear of missing out if the bottom rots or something. I figure if I was more patient, I would get sweeter melons and better seed quality.

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By taking seeds from underripe fruit, you select for fruits in which the seeds mature earlier. That doesn’t necessarily mean the fruits will also ripen earlier. It could, if those traits are closely linked.

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I picked this one today. I saw some yellow on it. My limited experience so far tells me yellow is bad. Every time I seem to notice yellow on the rind, usually some disaster has happened like it cracked open or rotted.

This is a 22 pounder and was the biggest one in my watermelon patch. It looks good, and so far I am glad I went ahead and pulled it. I will dig in tomorrow afternoon and hopefully enjoy sweet red flesh.

By the way, I have been cheating on my watermelons. I have been putting triple 13 in the IV drip. Hopefully next year I will have the confidence to grow them unaided.

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Hey, whatever you need to do to grow delicious food!

I hope it is extremely tasty. :slight_smile:

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My instincts were right. I went to the patch this beautiful morning and discovered disaster with its little brother. I am curious to figure out what new enemy I have.

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Unfortunate, I have picked 3 good watermelons so far from this patch and threw away 3-4 times that much.

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Yesterday afternoon I busted a few watermelons in disgust, which were already ruined by rot or cracking. I threw them in my garden paths. I wonder if it attracted the attention of my new garden friend. I have no idea what ate into that melon. I saw claw marks or bird pecks. We have a lot of birds here of different kinds. I have rarely seen rabbits and voles but they are here in small numbers. It could also be a neighbors dog enticed by sweet smell. I have never seen a dog do that though.

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Coyotes have been seen eating 20 watermelons in a go. Dogs and Raccoons like watermelons as well. Add to that bears, deer, squirrels and just about everything out there :stuck_out_tongue: . I think its the lot of the melon farmers to lose melons.

I had squirrels or rats take out a few of my smaller melons, the Kajari this season. That is on top of the insects and then the late unexpected rain splitting open most of them and a few my watermelons as well.

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Very possibly too much water. Watermelons were initially a desert plant. Mine grew best dry farmed.

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+1, and they recommend cutting all watering a few weeks before harvest to not only reduce the risk of splitting but also to concentrate the sugars in the melons.

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Someone needs to do a multi-generational test. Pull the whole watermelon plant just a day or two before peak ripeness. Let the melon hang on the vine until the vine dies.

Collect the seeds. Next generation repeat the process. Test the earliest melons to see if they ripen even a little.

My guess would be that after 5 or so generations you would have watermelons that ripen consistently off the vine.

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That is an awesome idea.

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The problem is that watermelon doesn’t have chemical process needed for it at all. So you couldn’t do it little by little but instead would need gene/genes that produce chemicals that in fruits do the ripening process. Of the vine there are only changes in acidity that make them seem sweeter when they are just less acidic.

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Don’t care whether it’s officially impossible. It’s worth a try. Who knows, maybe we’d get a long keeper watermelon.

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I didn’t say impossible, it just needs to brake barrier that is not done little by little. More like GMO if you want fast or by chance over millenia. Not something to chase for. There are lot’s of “impossible” things that are 1000 times more realistic. You could have them form sugars earlier and thus have more usable watermelons before fill ripeness. Just take them at day X and measure brix. They would just need to be ripe enough to have viable seeds.