What a delicious watermelon. Where to buy watermelon

Summer is in full swing! Vegetables and, of course, gourds appear on the shelves. If you dream of a striped berry, but are afraid of making a bad choice, be sure to read our recommendations. Then the most delicious and ripe watermelon will definitely be yours!

Let's start with the good news. More than 1,500 tons of gourds in the Astrakhan region have matured naturally. Because of the extreme heat, the harvest began earlier than usual.

So, you came for a watermelon. First of all, do not rely on the advice and suggestions of sellers, but carefully inspect the goods. The best proof of quality is a certificate of conformity of the goods to the requirements of the standard. Each seller must have it on hand. If the document has all the signatures and seals, you can safely buy. However, in practice, we know that most merchants do not have a certificate or refuse to show it. Then our advice and your attentiveness will come to the rescue.

1) The watermelon peel should not have a matte coating, the striped pattern should be clear and contrasting.

2) The watermelon itself should not lie on the ground or asphalt in the open sun. An ideal place for selling watermelons is a tent well sheltered from the sun with pallets for berries and stationary scales. Watermelons should be located at least 15 cm above the ground.

3) In no case do not take berries near the highway! A plucked watermelon "breathes", which means it absorbs road dust and gases.

4) A quality fruit should have a yellow spot, which indicates that this place the watermelon was in contact with the ground and ripened on melons under the sun.

5) Contrary to popular belief, never go for a dry tail, this means that the watermelon has survived long storage.

6) No need to ask to cut a watermelon to determine its ripeness. By doing this, you open a corridor for microbes that multiply rapidly in the heat.

7) Be guided by weight: a ripe watermelon should be heavy, overripe watermelons are usually much lighter.

8) Don't try to buy a giant watermelon that will feed your family and two neighbors. Give preference to a medium-sized berry, as a rule, it is the most ripe.

9) Pay attention to the crust of the striped berry. It should be firm and shiny, because the ripened fruit stops absorbing water and the crust hardens. Pry the crust with your fingernail: if the peel is easy to pierce, then you should not buy a watermelon.

10) Watermelon can be "girl" or "boy". The gender of the minke whale is easy to determine: the “male” berry has a convex bottom opposite the tail and a small circle on it. The "girls", on the contrary, have a flat bottom and a wide circle on it. It is believed that “girls” watermelons are tastier, as they contain fewer seeds and more sweetness.

11) When purchasing an early watermelon, it should be borne in mind that it may contain nitrates. It is almost impossible to check the berry for the presence of harmful substances when buying, but at home before eating, you can do a little research. Rub a piece of watermelon pulp into the water. If the watermelon is of high quality, then the water is simply cloudier. Otherwise, the water will turn red or pink. If you still have suspicions that your watermelon is “wrong”, eat it carefully, not reaching the white border with the crust. This is where the highest amount of nitrates is found. Therefore, it is better for children to feed the pulp from the middle.

12) And finally, do not neglect the well-known method of checking a watermelon. Tap on the berry you like! If the watermelon is ripe early, you will hear a dull sound. If you buy a watermelon at the end of the season, a ringing sound should be heard.

13) If you put all our tips into practice, congratulations. Having brought home a sweet and ripe watermelon, remember the rules for storing it. Before use, be sure to wash the watermelon with soap and a washcloth to clean the crust from dirt and dust.

14) An untouched watermelon can stay fresh for three months, but a cut berry can be stored for no longer than three days. It is better to store it in a dark, cool place like a cellar or refrigerator.

15) When you store a half-eaten watermelon, place it cut-side down on a plate and wrap it in cling film on top so it stays fresh longer.

How to find the most delicious, and most importantly, healthy watermelon among the dozens lying on the counter? Faced with a mountain of appetizing pumpkins, we begin to recall common advice, something from personal experience, but how many inaccuracies and contradictions are in this random information! Let's take it seriously.

watermelon photography

First of all, sanitary standards. You're still picking from a pile piled up next to a dusty, gassed road. Copies for sale should be neatly stacked on the flooring under a canopy. It’s not worth cutting a slice to make sure it’s ripe, it’s better to take the risk of buying an unripe watermelon than for sure to bring home harmful microorganisms from a knife or from street air. For the same reasons, you can’t buy a fruit with a crack, even a small one, or with a bruise mark - bacteria multiply rapidly in an open or damaged pulp.

Unscrupulous melon growers abuse the responsiveness of watermelon plants to fertilizing with fertilizers and overfeed them with nitrogen. The fruits quickly reach apparent ripeness, they turn out large, but unripe and dangerous to health. The seller must have a certificate confirming the absence of harmful substances in doses hazardous to health. If it is missing or there is no certainty of its authenticity, you have to rely on your own knowledge.

Video on how to choose a ripe and tasty watermelon

Sometimes saltpeter is injected into an immature fruit with a syringe, a speck with a puncture in the middle remains on the crust. But if an excess of nitrates is introduced from the soil, such an uncut specimen cannot be recognized, it is given out by the pulp. A confident seller exposes an unopened sample for inspection.

The taste of excess saltpeter is not directly discernible, but can be guessed from the discrepancy between bright, ripe-looking, but not very sweet flesh and unripe seeds, too light and soft. This happens if maturity is imitated with the help of chemistry.

In an ecologically clean fruit, the structure on the fracture is granular, with distinguishable cells, in the overfed with fertilizers it is fibrous. White streaks appear under difficult ripening conditions, for example, with a lack of heat, yellow formations are a sign of overfeeding with fertilizers. If the pulp is very bright, stir the piece in a glass of water. If the water turns red, the berry is “tinted” artificially, if it only becomes cloudy, then the product is pure.

Pictured is a watermelon

If pumping with nitrates is excluded, then the size depends on ripeness, ripening conditions and variety. Most likely, the average fruit will be of high quality, weighing about 6 kg. Too small can be suspected of immaturity, but first it must be assessed on other grounds. Too large should not be chosen if you have to store the cut residue, even in the refrigerator it can deteriorate during the day. It has been noticed that a slightly unsightly, slightly lopsided fruit is usually sweeter than a perfectly shaped watermelon.

As it matures, the skin color of the striped kavun becomes more and more contrasting. Be sure to pay attention to the stain formed at the point of contact of the fruit with the ground. In ripe watermelons, it is yellow, about 10 cm in diameter, in unripe ones it is white, and if the spot is too large, the fruits ripened for a long time due to poor conditions.

The peel of a ripe watermelon is easily scraped off with a fingernail, under it is a dense, white layer.

The stalk should be dry, yellowish. Until the fruit is ripe, it is green. A trained eye will determine whether the “tail” separated from the stem easily, because when the fruit was removed it was already dried up or it was pulled for a long time, tearing it off green, and it dried up already during storage. The knife mark on the cut is harder to see, but possible. By itself, this part does not disappear from the fetus, which means that if it is not there, then it was intentionally removed - it is better not to choose this one.

Pictured are watermelons

Another well-known sign of a well-ripened fruit is the characteristic crackling when squeezed. The sound that a ripe watermelon makes when clicked or patted is described by words in completely different ways. To one it seems sonorous, as if from an empty vessel, others call it “voluminous”, it is best to experiment by drumming on a deliberately ripe fruit and remember the resulting sound.

The density of the pulp decreases as it ripens, the ripened kavun does not sink in water. Taking it in hand, you can feel that it seems too light for the size. For those who like to trust the exact sciences on the question of how to determine the ripeness of a watermelon, there is a simple calculation. If it does not sink in water, then its weight, according to the law of Archimedes, must be less than the weight of water in the same volume. And this is achieved with the following ratios: if the circumference of a watermelon is 80, 70, 60 cm, then its weight should be less than 8.6, respectively; 5.8; 3.6 kg. The calculation is made for a ball, therefore, it is applicable only for round watermelons.

About watermelon girls and some prejudices

The division of fetuses by sex, into "boys" and "girls" is too common to be neglected. Vegetable growers, sellers, buyers from different countries have long been convinced that there are female watermelons - with a large flat trace from a separated flower and male ones, in which it is smaller and convex. Practice shows that, indeed, watermelons with a large spot opposite the stem are tastier, and you can use this feature when buying. Perhaps this is somehow related to the characteristics of pollination.

Video about tips for choosing a delicious watermelon

But calling watermelons "boys" and "girls" is only a joke. All vegetable fruits are formed from the organs of a female flower that has a pistil and an ovary, in our case, from the pericarp, they cannot have a sex! What would we think of a person who would think of dividing into "men" and "women", for example, apples or sunflower seeds?

The bad reputation of early, too large or small berries, unfortunately, is not without foundation. But we must not forget that breeders are constantly working to create more and more perfect varieties and hybrids. For the Russian climate, varieties called ultra-early, as well as large-fruited and with pulp of various colors, have been bred. In Europe, tasty and low-seeded watermelons weighing 2-3 kg are popular. It is necessary to pay attention to all signs of maturity and naturalness, of which there are many, and not to pre-select specimens that have ripened in July or fall outside the recommended size standard. Otherwise, you can pass by an excellent watermelon, and the achievements of scientists will remain unclaimed.

The onset of the watermelon season in the second half of summer is eagerly awaited by both big and small gourmets. It just so happened that in our country, where most of the territory belongs to the zone of risky agriculture, it is this southern culture that enjoys mass popularity and love. Juicy, sweet watermelon pulp not only perfectly quenches thirst on hot days, it gives pleasure in taste, pleasant emotions and is a source of many useful substances.

Ripe watermelon contains ascorbic and folic acid, magnesium, iron and potassium, dietary fiber and pectins.

That's just how to determine what is hidden under the green dense peel? How to determine the ripeness of a watermelon so that, once on the table, the cut berry does not disappoint, revealing to the audience a tasteless pale pink flesh?

If watermelons are grown on your own plot, you don’t have to worry about their quality, but sometimes purchased fruits, in addition to a pale appearance, present much more unpleasant surprises. Failure to comply with agricultural technology, the rules for the use of fertilizers and the storage of watermelons entails the danger of poisoning. Therefore, it is important not only to be able to distinguish a ripe berry from a green one, but to know how to choose the right watermelon that is safe for health.

Beginning of the watermelon season

You can buy watermelon in the supermarket today at any time of the year. Treated with preservatives or grown in greenhouses, sweet fruits from remote corners of the world easily reach Russian shelves. Is it possible to compare them with watermelons grown in the open field, in a summer cottage, under the hot summer sun? Based on the timing of the ripening of giant berries, we can conclude.

The first ripe watermelons on melons can appear only in July, and the mass collection of these gifts of summer begins in mid-August and lasts until October.

Moreover, the earlier the watermelon hits the counter, the greater the risk of containing nitrates and other compounds that are dangerous for the body, causing increased growth in fruits. So do not rush, because it is much easier to choose a good watermelon when their mass ripening starts.

How to determine the ripeness of a watermelon by the appearance of the bark?

Today, at the disposal of farmers and summer residents there are many varieties and hybrids of watermelons with a variety of patterns and colors of the bark. Breeders suggest growing fruits not only with bright red or pink flesh, but also with yellow and even white. At the same time, not a single scientist was able to create a plant, by the type of berries of which one could immediately determine the ripeness of a watermelon in the garden.

And yet there are a number of signs on how to choose a ripe watermelon. When choosing a fruit, pay attention to the condition of the peel, the brightness of the pattern and the presence of all kinds of damage. With all the richness of the existing colors of watermelons, the pattern on the bark should be clear, and the color of plain berries should be uniform. Watermelons with an uncharacteristic or blurry pattern are best set aside. After all, this can be a sign not only of the immaturity of the berry, but also a symptom of a disease, for example, a viral mosaic.

• Watermelons, which is not yet the time to leave the melon, have a matte bark.
• In a ripe fruit, the peel becomes glossy and hardens to such an extent that it is difficult to pierce it with a fingernail, but you can only scratch the top colored layer.
• In addition, in an unripe watermelon, the damaged bark secretes juice and emits a characteristic herbal smell.

According to folk observations, from striped watermelons, you need to choose the one in which the distance between the dark stripes is wider.

And some, even dry-looking defects and traces of scab on the surface of the bark can signal scab or anthracnose damage, which leads to underdevelopment of the pulp and a deterioration in the quality of the watermelon.

How to choose the right watermelon for the size and color of the earth stain?

Fruits grown on melons necessarily have a characteristic spot on the peel - the place where the watermelon comes into contact with the ground. In this area, the peel received less sunlight, less chlorophyll was produced here.

To determine the ripeness of a watermelon in a garden or on a counter, pay attention to the size, condition and color of such a spot:

• The bark here should not be damaged or be softer than in other areas.
• There are no stripes on the ground patch. This suggests that the watermelon was not disturbed during growth.

A spot, on average not exceeding 7-12 cm, should ideally be yellow, if the shade is closer to white, it is better for the watermelon to lie in the garden for another couple of weeks.

Is it possible to choose a sweet watermelon by a dry stem?

Are there any other tips on how to choose the right watermelon? You can often hear the recommendation that you can choose a delicious watermelon by taking a berry with a dry tail. But what if the watermelon on the counter has no stalk at all, or by all indications, a ripe berry in the garden does not want to separate from its native lash?

Indeed, in a fetus that has reached full maturity, the tail begins to dry:

• Knowing this, unscrupulous traders pick green watermelons, and the stalks dry during transportation and storage.
• In addition, the tail could dry out due to twisting or breaking of the whip long before the watermelons ripen.
• Also, trusting a dry stalk, you can bring an overripe watermelon to the table.

Therefore, you should not completely trust this sign.

It is much more reliable to pay attention not to one of the signs of watermelon ripeness, but immediately to their totality.

So, for example, in a sweet berry, ready for harvest, the stalk becomes smooth, characteristic hairs fall off it, which are present while the watermelon is immature. If watermelons grow in the country, you can determine the ripeness of a watermelon in the garden by other features. For example, melon growers are well aware that the tendrils at the place where the stalk of the watermelon is attached to the lash are sure to dry out when it is time to pick a ripe berry. In addition, at the place where the flower once was, by the time of ripening there is no trace of the bract.

How to choose a good watermelon by weight?

And in China and other Asian countries, when collecting watermelons, they use another interesting feature of these berries. Mature watermelons, due to the specifics of the internal structure, are lighter than water and always float on the surface. Based on this, one more sign can be deduced on how to choose a ripe watermelon. Of two fruits of equal size, the one that is lighter will be sweeter.

However, there is an exception here too. If at the beginning of summer there was cold, rainy weather, it is possible that this affected the formation of watermelons, and voids did not form inside them. Such fruits, even when ripe, seem less juicy, and closer to the core, the tissues noticeably coarsen.

As for the actual weight of the watermelon, at the beginning of the season, when buying a sweet treat, it is more reasonable to give preference to medium fruits. And already in the midst of the watermelon season, you can feast on real giants weighing from 7 to 15 kg.

How to choose a good watermelon by sound?

You can often see how, when determining the ripeness of a watermelon, buyers or sellers tap on the peel or squeeze the fruit with their palms:

• In response to a knock, a ripe sweet watermelon makes a booming sound, but if the fruit is not yet ready to hit the table, the echo will be deaf and unclear.
• When squeezed, a good watermelon may crackle slightly, a green fruit does not produce such an effect.

If the listed methods for determining the quality of the fetus did not fully answer the question of how to choose a ripe watermelon, the video will help you understand everything clearly.

The main thing, when choosing a high-quality, tasty watermelon, is not to forget that success is possible when all the features considered are taken into account.

Summer residents who grow watermelons in their own beds do not worry about the quality of the fruit. They know for sure that, following the rules of agricultural technology, only useful sweet berries will be harvested from melons without excess amounts of nitrates, pesticides and dyes.

How to choose a watermelon of proper quality?

But how do you choose a good watermelon on the counter of a store or in a vegetable stand? Can all sellers be trusted, and how to protect yourself from poor-quality fruits?

Approaching the counter, you need to pay attention to the conditions of injury and laying out watermelons. In the conditions of street trade, for the sale of melons, special pavilions are necessarily organized, equipped with pallets and canopies to protect watermelons from contact with soil and sunlight. In the store, watermelons are also laid out on pallets or in baskets and do not come into contact with the floor.

Since the pulp of a watermelon instantly absorbs the slightest pollution, settling dust, and the pathogenic flora reproduces perfectly on sweet pulp, it is by no means possible to buy watermelons at roadside points, or choose fruits with cracks and cuts.

It is better to refuse to buy watermelon if the seller cannot present documents certifying the quality and safety of melons. Such certificates and certificates indicate the place of cultivation of the batch, the date of harvest and the expiration date. A certificate from a specialized laboratory assures that there are no substances harmful to health in watermelons.

Ten rules for choosing a ripe healthy watermelon - video

It is recommended to buy watermelons from reliable sellers, and the berries should be protected from dust, and not stacked near the road. Some buyers try it to determine the maturity of watermelons, but you should not do this, because along with the juicy pulp, you can bring into your body harmful microorganisms that have fallen on a slice from the environment. For sanitary reasons, it is not recommended to purchase watermelons with a crack, albeit a small one, as well as a bruise. These places can serve as an excellent breeding ground for pathogenic bacteria.

Some growers of watermelons apply significant amounts of fertilizers, especially nitrogen, to the soil to obtain increased yields. As a result of such activities, the fruits develop intensively, become large, but they, as a rule, do not ripen and pose a danger to human health. Each of the sellers must carry a certificate that confirms the absence of harmful substances in watermelons. Sometimes nitrates are injected into the fruit with a syringe to speed up the ripening of the pulp, but in this case the puncture site can be seen.

If nitrates are introduced from the soil, then it was previously impossible to determine their presence without cutting the fruit. However, now there are nitrate meters on sale - devices that will show the content of nitrates in watermelon. It is useful to have a nitrate meter on the farm to measure the indicators of these substances when buying all vegetables and fruits.

Usually, when cutting a natural watermelon without the participation of chemistry, black seeds can be found, and the presence of harmful substances is given out by insufficiently sweet and light pulp, immature seeds. In a natural product, when broken, a granular middle is exposed, while a fruit overfed with fertilizers contains a significant amount of fibers. The presence of white streaks usually indicates a lack of heat at ripening, while yellow formations indicate an excess of mineral fertilizers. If the flesh of the watermelon is too bright, you need to cut off a piece and stir it in water. Usually a change in the color of the liquid indicates an artificial tint.

How to determine the ripeness of a watermelon by appearance

A fully ripe watermelon should weigh within 6 kilograms, but even smaller fruits can be ripe, but they need to be further tested. It is better not to take berries of significant weight if you do not plan to eat everything on the day of purchase, because the cut fruit can be stored in the refrigerator for no more than a day. Melon growers say that irregularly shaped watermelons are often much sweeter than standard ones.

When any variety of watermelon ripens, the color of the stripes on its peel acquires a contrast with the main color. When choosing, pay special attention to the spot of contact of the fruit with the ground - in a ripe and sweet watermelon it is yellow with a diameter of 10 centimeters or more, in unripe ones it is white. The rind of sweet, fully ripe watermelons is easily scraped off with a fingernail.

The stalk of a mature fruit is yellowish and dry, in an unripe watermelon it is green. With an experienced eye, you can determine how the tail of the fruit separated from the main stem - it was torn off by itself or it was torn off for a long time, it is more difficult to determine the cut with a knife. If there is no tail on the watermelon, then it was removed on purpose, so it is not recommended to buy such a fruit.

Other signs of a ripe watermelon include a dull sound when tapped on the fruit, a characteristic crack when pressed, and a coating on the surface. The density of the fruit pulp decreases during ripening, so a high-quality berry does not sink in water.

When are watermelons ripe?

The ripening period of watermelon berries depends on the variety and other biological characteristics of this crop. Under standard growing conditions in warm regions, the crops in question begin to ripen in the middle of summer, but are harvested selectively. Melon growers pay attention to the fact that berries intended for transportation over long distances are plucked a few days from the moment of physiological maturity.

The middle of summer is the approximate period of ripening of the first watermelons. In fact, everything depends on many factors: the region of cultivation, the variety used, soil conditions, as well as technology (plants can develop and produce crops in unprotected soil or greenhouses). Depending on the variety chosen, from the moment of germination to the appearance of the first harvest, it can take from 65 (for early ripening watermelons) to 100 days (for late varieties).

The most delicious berries with sweet pulp are obtained in the southern regions of our country, when grown on light sandy soils, and it is absolutely useless to grow such varieties of watermelons in the middle lane or Siberia, where loamy and cold soils are present. The crops that will be planted in the considered climatic zones will not only ripen late, but will not have time to accumulate enough sugar, and the fruits will be lopsided. It has been noticed that the ripening of watermelons can be delayed in the event of a rainy summer and a violation of the balance of positive temperatures. In such situations, in order to accelerate the ripening processes, a frame is arranged over the cultures and a transparent plastic film is stretched.

Tips for choosing a sweet and ripe watermelon - video

The end of summer is coming soon, which means it's time for delicious and sweet watermelons. By the way, did you know that the fruits of this annual herbaceous plant are morphologically considered to be a berry?! In this short instruction, I want to tell you how to choose the right ripe watermelon so that it is ripe and sweet. Since childhood, many believe that the ripeness of a watermelon can be determined by the sound, or rather by the knock. The mature sound is more deaf. And if you press it, it will crunch. And if the knock is sonorous, then it has not yet matured.
In fact, there are much more signs of watermelon ripeness. Let's look at them all.

On a ripe watermelon, a dry tail

The tail of a watermelon indicates its maturity: green indicates that the fruit was plucked too early and its taste will no longer be as juicy. Ripe will be the one that has already dried hard tail.

And if you are lucky and you are on melon, then in order to choose a guaranteed ripe watermelon there will be one that has a dry tendril on the stalk. Here he is:

On this basis, professional pickers on melons determine a ripe watermelon when they are loaded into transport.

How to determine maturity by soil stain

While the fruit is growing, it lies on the ground and this part of it has a yellowish color. It's called "Earth Spot". So the most ripe, and therefore very sweet, will be the watermelon, in which the earthen spot will be closer to dark yellow or even orange. The greener the fruit, the lighter the spot, closer to white. Here is a prime example:

On the right is the “correct” watermelon. But the one on the left was plucked early and he was not ripe, so you should not take him.

We are looking for the right watermelon on the bee web

If you are looking at watermelons in a store when buying, then the so-called “bee web” will help you find the sweetest one. Here she is:

These are small brown spots, somewhat reminiscent of a web. They tell us that during pollination, the bees often touched the ovary of the fruit, that is, pollination was very intensive, which means the fruit will be sugar!

Boy or girl?

Did you know that watermelons are also distinguished by gender. "Men" are distinguished by a narrower and elongated shape. They have large seeds, and the taste is not very bright, but the flesh itself is very, very juicy. "Girls" are smaller and rounder. They seem to be squashed. They have a very sweet rich taste and small seeds.

A big watermelon is a ripe watermelon!

Another way to choose a ripe and sweet watermelon is to look for medium-sized specimens weighing between 6 and 10 kilograms. At the same time, a good fruit is always quite heavy for its size.

The largest specimens are also not worth taking. The fact is that even "local" fruits (that is, grown in Russia) weighing more than 15 kilograms are pumped up to the eyeballs with nitrates. Unfortunately, the content of nitrates cannot be determined by eye.

Try to buy watermelons in trusted places. The point of sale must be equipped with a tray for these fruits and covered with an awning. Alternatively, a covered truck. Buying watermelons piled on the ground, and even next to the road, is clearly not worth it.
The most delicious watermelon should also be outwardly beautiful - shiny, not sluggish, without cracks, dents and scratches. The stripes are clear and contrasting. Through damage to the crust, dirt and bacteria enter the inside of the fruit and this can not only spoil the taste, but also cause indigestion.
Many sellers offer to cut a piece of watermelon you like for a sample. Doing this is not worth it. As a rule, sellers don’t wash knives and bring unnecessary bacteria inside the fruit, because of which it can quickly disappear.