Watermelon is a delicious and refreshing super-fruit that has limitless health properties. It contains only 46 calories per cup but is high in vitamin C, vitamin A and many healthy compounds including cucurbitacin E and lycopene, which have been tested for their potential to prevent cancer, heart problems, and even Alzheimer’s disease.

Due to all these reasons, everybody loves to include watermelon in their regular diet. However, buying a juicy, delicious, ripe, watermelon is hit or miss unless you know how to check them correctly. There’s no rocket science involved, you just have to follow few simple tricks when you’re buying out your melons and you can even tell whether a watermelon is ripe without actually cutting it open.

Today, we at epic universe decided to bring you a couple of those tips we learned from veteran farmers that will help you to choose the finest watermelon out there.

Look for the “field spot”

The yellow spot, known as the field spot, is the place where the watermelon rested on the ground. Ripe watermelons always have creamy yellow or even orange-yellow spots, not white.

Look for ‘webbing’

These weblike brown spots on the watermelon mean that bees touched the pollinating parts of the flower many times. The more pollination, the sweeter the fruit is.

‘Male’ and ‘Female’ watermelons

Many people might not know this but farmers distinguish watermelons by gender. For example, ‘boys’ are bigger, have an elongated shape, and a watery taste. The ‘girls’ have a rounded shape and are very sweet.

Size does matter

It is better to choose neither the largest nor the smallest watermelon. Select an average-sized fruit. And remember, even if it is large or small, the watermelon should feel heavy for its size.

Check the tail

A dried-out tail means that the watermelon is ripe. If the tail is still green, it probably means that the watermelon was picked too soon and will not be up to its full potential.

We hope this helps next time you go shopping for watermelons. Enjoy!