How to Know When a Honeydew Melon is Ripe

It's not hard to know when a honeydew melon is right, especially if you know what to check for. Below are a few tips to choose a melon that's ripe, but not too ripe.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Inspect the color of the honeydew melon. If it's beige with green veins, it means it's immature. This would be a good for a melon you plan to eat in the near future, but not right away. A yellow hue with bright yellow sections, means it was taken off the vine too soon. Look for one with a golden color, and don't worry if it has a bit of brown freckling. Brown freckling actually means it's a spot where it's high in sugar, which is a good thing.

2. For those more experienced with melons, they always smell the melon. A sweet scent is a good sign that your fruit is ripe and ready to be eaten.

3. A healthy melon should be firm, but not hard. It also shouldn't have any soft spots on it. Some melons feel spongy under the finger pressure, this means they're too ripe.

4. If you shake it gently, a ripe honeydews fibers inside will actually seperate a bit. So you should be able to hear the seeds move around inside.

5. Many like the old fashioned thump test. To do this, lightly knock against the melon as you would gently knock onto a door. A hollow sound is bad, this means that it doesn't have much moisture and won't be sweet. The sound should be slightly deep for a healthy melon.

Resources

• Gardening Supplies

[velosity]

on 7/8/2009 Great information. Thanks!

[jull14]

on 6/22/2009 A very interesting article and very helpful, I hope that you write more like this one, thanks for helping us.