watermelon mystery

i am from michigans upper peninsula and a rookie garderner,we have a short grow season.i tried watermelons , and my melons grew quite large, so i picked one and it did not even turn pink inside.how do you know when they are ripe? im puzzled any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Hi stumptrucker, If you are absolutely sure they are water mellons, then you must have picked them too soon, were they bought seed or from a mellon that you took the seeds from, if the latter, then it should have been the same as the parent, If you bought a mellon BABY PLANT, then maybe the labels got mixed, the way of knowing if the mellons are ripe and ready to harvest is, hold the fruit careful but firm in your hand and press your thumb against the end of the fruit (the bottom, futhest away from the stalk) and if you feel it dent in a little, then it is ready to pick, if it feels hard and no give in it, then there is still a bit of growing to be done, or ripening needed, as to the colour of the inside, it all depends on the type of mellon, some are huge and will take a good while to reach maturity, also, are they growing outside or indoors, indoors/greenhouse will give you a slightly longer season and heat, but outdoors, you are correct, your season will be a lot shorter, but you should still have a bit of time left yet I would think, they are very thursty plants and need a lot of water, not like a day hear and there, also you should be feeding them often also, maybe a tomato fertiliser as you water. good luck, hope this helps you a bit. WeeNel.

You can also look at the tendrils closest to the watermelon itself. As the watermelon matures these tendrils dry. If the tendrils close to the fruit themselves are still green, the fruit is probably still green. If the tendrils are dried and mostly brown, the fruit should be ready. This works in most cases.

thanks for your help. they were in fact plants from our local green house. we had a dry summer and they probably could have used a lot more water. and i had maybe three to four weeks of decsent weather to let them ripen.i am going to plant my garden this weekend and i will try them again, thanks again for your help.

dbrooks i do remember the plants were very green near the melon. and i probably did get to exited, and picked them to soon. thanks for the tip!! i am new at gardening and this web site is great! isure appreciatethe help of everone. i am a logging truck driver and am trying out my green thumb

Hi stumptrucker, if you are away for a few days at a time trucking, then maybe you could set up either a drip water/feed system which is easy to do and make yourself, or get a simple under ground water seep system, even that you can do yourself with an old hose pipe that would just water the mellons only, while your absent, they really do take a lot of water and they will perhaps split if not done regularly, ie too dry then lots of water all at once, good for you, trying again, go for it, you still have a good bit of summer to go yet, all the best. WeeNel.