how to check if a watermelon is ripe
Hold a melon up to your ear, if you can feel it squeeze and hear a slight mush instead of a crack it is ripe. 7 Check the size. It's not necessarily true that when a watermelon is big enough, it's ready; but under good conditions, it should be normal size. If it's not, you're probably too anxious.
Check the tendril. If the tendril is green, you should wait to pick the melon. Harvest when the curled tendril near the stem, the pigtail or tendril closest to the melon on the vine begins to shrivel and dry up. If it dries while the leaves and rest of the vine looks good, the melon should be ripe.