Knowing the national love for watermelons, every year there are always people trying to make money from it, using dishonest or even illegal methods. Most of these techniques are aimed at obtaining the earliest and most abundant harvest. As a result, traders and agricultural producers benefit twice because:

• they manage to sell watermelons when the bulk of the crop is still ripening in the beds;
• receiving additional profit from fruits that have artificially gained weight.

The only one who loses is the unfortunate consumer who succumbed to temptation and bought a completely useless, not always tasty, and sometimes very dangerous watermelon. Indeed, in pursuit of profit, unscrupulous melon growers, and then traders, have to violate agricultural practices, flood the plantings with chemicals, use seeds of dubious quality, and also, without observing the terms and conditions of storage of fruits, offer obviously spoiled watermelons.

The problem is complicated by the fact that when buying a whole fruit, people cut it only for serving, and only here can they see:

• the rough yellow and white veins in the watermelon;
• undeveloped areas of pulp and cracks dividing it into several parts;
• sluggish, loose pulp inside the watermelon;
• uneven coloring;
• signs of fermentation.

And sometimes red sugar, instead of being sweet, is desperately bitter. Why is this happening? What to do with such a watermelon and what do the white and yellow veins in the pulp mean?

Where do the white and yellow veins in watermelon come from?

The main and most common cause of poisoning caused by watermelons is the use of excessive amounts of nitrogen fertilizers when growing.

Under normal conditions, this is an indispensable element for the growth and development of plants, however, using it in excess of the permissible norms, melon growers can get a fruit weighing up to 10 kg in just 2–3 weeks. After abundant watering and fertilizing with a solution of nitrate, the watermelons swell by leaps and bounds, and instead of the required 70–90 days of being in the melon patch under the sun, they are harvested almost a month earlier. The producer receives an early harvest of huge fruits, but each of them has already accumulated a fair amount of nitrates that are toxic to humans.

One of the signs of “poisoning” of melons with saltpeter is white and yellow veins penetrating the pulp in the watermelon. They are formed due to the action of a chemical that causes not only the lashes, but also the fruit to develop faster. At first, these peculiar vessels are white and supply the still unripe watermelon with nutrition, but under the influence of nitrates the fruit grows quickly and just as quickly ages. Therefore, the white veins in the watermelon soon become coarser and acquire a yellow or brownish tint.

High doses of nitrates and nitrites synthesized from them in the body can accumulate and enhance the negative effect. Exposure to nitrogen compounds affects the digestive system, disrupts metabolic processes and has a depressing effect on the nervous system. As a result of nitrites entering the body, the supply of oxygen to tissues deteriorates and the immune system is destroyed.

If an adult can tolerate a dose of 150–200 mg relatively painlessly, then 600 mg of nitrates cause irreparable damage. But nitrogen compounds cause the greatest damage to young children, for whom a dose of 10 mg or more is toxic.

Why does a watermelon have loose flesh inside?

Interestingly, the process caused by nitrates continues after the harvest of such a “chemical” crop. True, the watermelon no longer grows, but the tissues inside it change. Even if picked green, it soon turns red, and the white vessels gradually turn yellow. And a couple of weeks after picking, the pulp inside the watermelon is loose, crumbling and low in juiciness.

When cutting a fruit pumped with nitrates that has been lying on the counter for a while, in addition to yellow veins in the watermelon, areas of yellow compacted pulp are often found, reaching from 2 to 50 mm in diameter. Eating such watermelon even in healthy people can cause the most unpleasant consequences, and certainly will not bring pleasure. Use is the most common reason for the poor quality of melons, but in reality you can encounter some other unpleasant moments.

Asking the question: “Why is the watermelon inside soggy and not tasty at all?”, the buyer may come across a fruit that has been stored incorrectly for a long time. A couple of weeks in the scorching sun is enough for a watermelon torn from the vine to begin to lose moisture, and its pulp takes on the appearance of dry reddish or whitish grains. Typically, this process starts from the seed locations and then spreads to the core.

Why is watermelon bitter?

If coarse fibers in the pulp, changes in its color and structure, indicating the poor quality of the watermelon, are easy to see as soon as it is cut, then you will definitely have to try the bitter fruit at least once.

Why is watermelon, famous for its sweetness, bitter? There are several possible answers here. Most often, buyers have to deal with already aged fruits, which, due to natural reasons or due to the effects of nitrates, have lost their original taste properties.

Thanks to the saltpeter that gets into the ovary, it develops rapidly, reaching a weight of 10–20 kg. Then unscrupulous melon growers leave the watermelons to sit for a few more days, during which the fruits turn red, but, alas, do not gain the proper sweetness. As a result, the accumulated 5–6% of fructose and glucose are converted into sucrose, and soon the pulp begins to sour, changing the taste to sour-bitter.

In addition, if you bought an unripe fruit pumped with nitrates, it is possible that cucurbitacin, the substance responsible for the bitterness of cucumbers and momordica, is to blame for its unpleasant taste. Ripe watermelons contain a small amount of it, but green vegetables contain much more of this natural toxin that causes stomach pain and indigestion. This explains why watermelon tastes bitter in the summer.

If you want to enjoy a sweet slice in winter, then the culprit of the unpleasant taste may be ethylene gas, which is used to treat fruits grown somewhere in Thailand or Turkey for better storage.

In any case, if you come across a watermelon that is loose inside, has coarse fibers, or has a specific taste, you should avoid eating it.

Video about choosing early watermelons

This year I haven't eaten really good and sweet watermelon yet. Everything that we buy in stores (Metro, Auchan) somehow does not really meet my standards of what a real watermelon should be.

Of course, you can eat purchased watermelons, but where is the tight ripeness and sugar content that I love so much? There are none. And this despite the fact that I know how to choose watermelons - you can say that I grew up in watermelon melon fields near Volgograd.

I was browsing the internet here and came across an interesting article about how the guys from the UralWeb website selected and checked watermelons. Unfortunately, we, too, have recently increasingly come across the watermelons described in this article...

Buying a watermelon is a whole ritual. Moreover, everyone who has tried to choose the right watermelon at least once in their life knows at least a dozen signs by which one can identify a good, ripe and sweet fruit. But in reality it turns out that these signs do not always work 100%. As a result, the watermelon, which crunched the best, “tapped” perfectly, and was even red when cut, turns out to be sour and tasteless. Or in general - candied and fermented.

Of course, UralWeb natural scientists cannot continue to put up with such uncertainty, and therefore it was decided to deal with watermelons once and for all.

So, we decided to test in practice all the existing signs of a ripe watermelon and find out which one is the most accurate!

Through lengthy research, we found out several signs of a ripe watermelon, which we tried to test in practice:

- degree of dryness of the tail - according to some data, this is the most popular way to determine the ripeness of a watermelon

- “gender” of watermelon. For some of us this was a revelation, but among watermelons there really are “boys” and “girls”, and now we are interested in imagining how they reproduce.

- brightness of the peel

- sonority when tapped - the more “dull” the knock, the riper the watermelon.

- softness of the peel - the easier the peel is scraped off (with a fingernail, for example), the riper the watermelon. By the way, this can also be determined by the released juice.

- the creaking of a watermelon when squeezing it with your hands. This method is clearly demonstrated in one of the episodes “Well, wait a minute!” Like, if the watermelon starts to creak at the same time, it means it’s already ripe.

- yellow spot on the side. It is formed when a watermelon is aged in a melon field. If the spot is large, especially if the watermelon is flattened in this place, it means it has been lying in the garden for a long time and has ripened properly.

- flesh color. Here, it would seem, everything is clear: the redder, the riper.

Striped berries were purchased at three control points: at the nearest vegetable kiosk, at a large supermarket and at a stall selling on a busy highway. Just in case, we warn you - gooseberries are also green striped berries, but they are smaller than watermelons. Don't get confused!

So, where and under what conditions did we buy watermelons?

The watermelon in the store, oddly enough, turned out to be the cheapest and was in much better conditions than its counterparts in other retail outlets. The watermelons were kept in a relatively cool room, on high racks away from street dust. For one kilogram of live weight they charged 10.90 rubles (2009 prices). Thus, a “berry” weighing 5.5 kg cost us a little over 60 rubles.

They also lay quite high from the ground on the street tray, however, they already had a slight coating of street dust. A kilogram of watermelon here was noticeably more expensive than in the store - 16.50 rubles, so 6.5 kg cost us 109 rubles.

By the way, a little later, while studying information about watermelons found on the Internet, we found out that buying watermelons on city streets and along highways is not very advisable, since watermelons very actively absorb toxins, and up to 40% of this poison ends up directly in the watermelon pulp .

The last watermelon was bought on the way out of town along a busy highway. They lay in simple boxes right on the ground and were thickly covered with road dust. The saleswoman claimed that they had only been there for a couple of days, but for some reason I didn’t want to believe her.

Apparently, offended by our distrust, the saleswoman shortchanged us by 70 rubles (we discovered this already in the office). By the way, watermelons here also turned out to be the most expensive - 19.80 rubles per kilogram. Thus, a watermelon weighing 7.7 kg, after some simple mathematical manipulations, resulted in us spending 215 rubles and the firm conviction that we would never buy anything else along the route.

After all the ordeals, the watermelons were eventually delivered to the naturalists’ base, and we began to thoroughly check them.

External examination of watermelons showed the following

The first thing we noticed was the watermelon tails. As popular saying goes, the drier the tail, the more ripe the watermelon. In fact, the dryness of the tail is more of an indication of how long ago the watermelon was picked.
For example, a store-bought watermelon had no tail at all, a watermelon from a tray had a raw tail, and a watermelon bought on the highway had a dry tail.

Next, we turned our attention to the other watermelon “pole”, that is, we tried to determine the “gender” of our subjects. It turns out that by the size of the flower mark you can tell whether a watermelon is a “boy” or a “girl”. If the mark from the flower is large, it is a “watermelon”; if it is small, then it is a “boy”. All three of us turned out to be “boys”, and there is no need to be particularly puzzled about this: according to the sellers, “girls” are practically never found in our area.

Tapping showed that the loudest watermelon was the one we bought on the street. Of course, we did not measure this with any instruments, but relied solely on our collective ear for music.

If you believe folk superstitions, the third watermelon should have been the ripest.

Having listened to the watermelon echo, we moved on to examining its surface, that is, the rind. The color was quite bright everywhere, and the store-bought watermelon was even a little paler than its counterparts. Perhaps this is due to the lack of sunlight at the place of sale.

Having heard a lot of stories about how unfortunate watermelons are pricked with potassium permanganate and other dyes, we decided to inspect the watermelons for anti-pricks. Suspicions of “doping” arose only in relation to the watermelon purchased on the highway. At least, traces vaguely reminiscent of injection marks were found only on him. The rest, if they were tinted, were done so in some way unknown to us.

And the last point to check the appearance is the size of the yellow spot. This is the part of the watermelon that it lies on the ground. Thus, the larger, paler and flatter it is, the longer it was in the garden with all the ensuing consequences. In a store-bought watermelon, this spot was light yellow and small in size, in a roadside watermelon it was light green, in a watermelon bought on the street it was large and white.

The last test before opening is a compression test. They say that when a ripe watermelon is squeezed with both hands, it begins to crunch a little. All three watermelons were quite crunchy and thus passed the test. True, the store-bought crunch was less confident.

Now let's move on to the most interesting part - the autopsy.

By the way, we found information on the Internet that some people check the readiness of a watermelon by the sound it makes when cutting it. We didn’t quite figure out exactly what the ripest watermelon should sound like, so we relied only on our aesthetic preferences. So, the most pleasant sound was the watermelon bought on the highway.

In general, if you are offered to open a watermelon on the spot, or, even worse, are offered to buy an already cut watermelon, it is better not to risk it. Firstly, sellers, in principle, should not have a knife with them. Secondly, when cutting, any infection can get inside the watermelon. And thirdly, under plastic or cling film, microbes multiply like in the best incubator, so if you buy a cut watermelon, you risk spending several unforgettable nights in the infectious diseases department.

So, the autopsy showed that all three watermelons had different colored flesh.

The store one has red-pink,

the one bought near the road is red with areas of dark red pulp,

and the street one has a smooth red color.

But the color of the pulp was not the main thing. First of all, we wanted to test watermelons for nitrate content. In order to accurately assess their content in any vegetable or fruit, experts advise using a nitrate meter. It costs about 25 thousand rubles, and it is clear that such a thing will always be useful in the household, so there was no need to waste time on trifles. The truth is, we would have had to wait almost a month for its delivery, and we didn’t have that much time in reserve. I had to use the “old-fashioned” methods.

First of all, you need to take a close look at the fruit: a “nitrate” watermelon has an intensely red flesh with a slight purple tint, and the fibers that go from the core to the rind are not white, like good watermelons, but yellowish. If you grind a piece of watermelon in a glass of water, it should just turn cloudy. This means the fruit is good. If it turns red or pink, you have a berry overfed with nitrates.

Of all three watermelons, only the roadside watermelon had a slight yellowish tint. The other two were solid white.

As for soaking in water, the water turned cloudy for the first and third watermelons. We let it sit and a slight pink tint remained in all three samples. However, it was not strong enough to suspect nitrate content on that basis alone.

Another popular method is to pierce the skin of the watermelon. If milky liquid comes out of the hole, it means the watermelon is pumped with something. Store-bought watermelon produced clear juice, street watermelon produced slightly cloudy juice, and roadside watermelon produced dark-colored juice.

We also tested the watermelons for their wateriness. The fact is that many unscrupulous traders often pump watermelons with water to make them heavier. It’s not difficult to check: if, after cutting, juice flows out of the watermelon abundantly, it means that it has been weighed down with water. And if store-bought and street watermelons turned out to have natural moisture, then roadside watermelons were too watery. Ay-ay-ay, gentlemen roadside merchants!

Well, now the most important thing - watermelon taste!

Sample number two justified our worst fears. Immediately after the first bite, the entire watermelon weighing 7.7 kg, not counting the water, went into the trash bin. It was very sour and it was absolutely impossible to eat it. Thus, on the highway we were not only shortchanged (that’s not so bad), but they also sold us a completely indigestible watermelon.

Sample No. 3, that is, a watermelon bought on the street, turned out to taste much more pleasant. It was very sweet in the middle and less sweet near the crust. Nevertheless, a solid "5".

The store-bought watermelon was not as sweet, but the taste was very uniform. So here it is “four”.

So, what you need to pay attention to when buying a watermelon:

The spot is an important sign of watermelon ripeness. The bigger and lighter the better. It’s even better if in this place the watermelon is slightly deformed from lying for a long time.

The place of purchase decides. Don't take it on the highway if you don't want to glow at night. Although, in the infectious diseases department you can easily become a local attraction.

No puncture marks. Make sure that the integrity of the crust is not compromised; the fewer suspicious spots and the cleaner the surface, the better.

Knocking, cracking and a dry tail will not protect you from a tasteless watermelon. “Nitrate” watermelons ring perfectly and have wonderful tails. However, if the place is verified, then you should also pay attention to these parameters.

A loud sound when opened does not indicate the excellent quality of the watermelon. When opened, the watermelon turned out to be the crunchiest and the most unusable.

The sound of a watermelon when tapped: the louder it is, the better.

What do you associate with a ripe watermelon? With aromatic sweet red pulp. But it turns out that white watermelon can be no less tasty. Unless the unusual color is a sign of the variety, and not the product of unscrupulous sellers.

Unusual variety

“White miracle” is the name of the variety with an unusual color for watermelon pulp. His ancestors lived in South Africa, in the dry Kalahari desert. There they were wild, small and tasteless, sometimes even bitter. But travelers considered it lucky to find even such a fruit in an arid area - it was often the only source of moisture.
Today it is a large berry with a thin peel. Inside it has sweet, sugary white pulp with an unusually fresh aroma of strawberry and cucumber.
Other unusual varieties of watermelon are also known. Who knows what other color the miracle breeders will want to color the watermelon pulp?

Unripe berry

But most often, purchasing a watermelon with white flesh entails not admiration, but disappointment. Why? Because these are unripe fruits, stuffed with chemicals. How to recognize them?

Signs

They can be distinguished by the following characteristics:

• white coating on the surface;
• the flesh is unevenly colored, in places it is white, pink, intense red or even purple;
• the fibers inside the pulp are not white, but yellow and coarse;
• the middle is loose, with grains, cracks and voids;
• inside are not dark brown, but white seeds surrounded by mucus;
• yellow and white streaks and spots are visible to the naked eye.

Usually such a fruit is not at all sweet and fermented. It has a thick peel, on which you will probably see rotten spots.

If you find the listed signs inside a watermelon, stop eating it. Otherwise, you can get severe poisoning.

Causes

You can get ready-made fruit in June-July in several ways, some of which are unsafe for human health:

1.Safe way.
The plant is covered with a film, under which it grows and ripens faster. You won't find a sunspot on this watermelon.

2. Unsafe method.
The juicy center accumulates toxic nitrates. The most common growth stimulant is nitrogen. By increasing its dose, melon growers successfully accelerate its growth and reduce the growing season by almost a month. And they don’t think at all about the sad consequences of consuming such an agricultural product.

3. Another unsafe method.
You can turn a safe watermelon into a dangerous one after it has been removed from the melon plant - unripe and with white flesh. The presentation is achieved by injecting a solution of potassium permanganate or nitrate inside.

Press down on the surface of the berry. Do not buy it under any circumstances if pink water appears.

But it’s better to wait until August and September, when high-quality fruits appear on the shelves.

“Itself is scarlet, sugary” - this part of the riddle about watermelon gives a clear definition of what this huge berry should be like. Watermelons are already on sale, but is it worth eating them?

A few years ago, watermelons appeared on store shelves and markets in August-September. Now, if you really want to, you can find watermelon in January – on the counter of a large hypermarket. This will usually be a berry brought from a distant country, for example, from Egypt. Many people are afraid to eat such fruits and vegetables, and there are reasons for this. But those watermelons that appear on shelves in June grew much closer: in Central Asia. Some of them, according to the sellers, even come from the Astrakhan region, which is famous throughout the country for the quality and sweetness of watermelons.

Should we believe sellers who assure that watermelons are “sweet, ripe and almost bursting”? Should I buy watermelon now or wait until at least the beginning of August?

Experts say that the watermelons that are sold now are early-ripening varieties, and most often they come from Central Asia. However, when buying a watermelon on the market, you have no idea where it came from and how it was grown, so there is a risk of buying a berry that has been specially pumped with nitrates so that it ripens much faster, rather than a special “early” variety being brought in. The health risk from such a watermelon is enormous; poisoning can be very serious, including hospitalization. If you really want watermelon and waiting for August is too long, a pocket nitrate meter will be the solution. It’s easy to use; household nitrate meters cost from 700 rubles. Using this device, you can easily determine whether you can treat yourself to a huge red berry, or whether it is better to wait a little. Remember that all melons are heat-loving crops, and even in the southern Central Asian countries, watermelons and melons ripen no earlier than the second half of summer. If you are guaranteed not to eat Ogonyok watermelon grown in a greenhouse, wait until mid-August.

There are several tips that will help you choose the perfect watermelon - ripe, juicy, sugary, aromatic. The main ones are "Arguments and Facts".

1. Buy in the right places

Photos of travelers from Turkmenistan, where watermelons lie in huge piles right on the ground, are best forgotten. In the Turkmen outback there are fewer cars and cleaner dust. In a Russian metropolis, it would be correct to buy watermelon from special trays, in melon pavilions equipped for storage, and in supermarkets. After all, the watermelons lying on the shelf in the store, and the same ones sold by an Uzbek at the market, come to our cities from the same places, but the sanitary storage conditions in the stores are an order of magnitude better than in the markets, and it is the right place to choose watermelons.

2. Cleanliness is the key to health

Do not think that the thick rind completely protects the entire watermelon. Dust, of course, will not reach the pulp, but microorganisms through microcracks may well get onto the edible part. Therefore, it is better not to select fruits dumped in roadside dust, but to leave them to sellers.

3. The more, the riper

This is the absolute truth. Only representatives of certain varieties reach more than 10 kilograms of weight. And only extremely ripe and liquid-filled fruits reach this size. Therefore, when thinking about how to choose a delicious watermelon, choose fruits of the maximum size. The more likely it is that it will be very ripe and juicy.

4. Look at the ponytail...

Each fruit, having reached a certain age and filled with moisture and nutrients, stops eating from the bush. And the bush gradually begins to dry out and fade. As a result, the need for connection with the bush disappears, and the place of articulation - the tail - begins to dry out. A ripe watermelon will be completely dry.

When purchasing, it is very easy to distinguish a cut off green tail from a broken off dry one. Even if the first of them dried out during transportation, an even mark from the cut will be clearly visible on it. A watermelon with such a tail is likely to be unripe.

5. ... and on the color of the “cheek”

The cheek is the same spot without color that remains on the watermelon in the place where it lay. That’s right, if the “cheek” becomes yellow and even a little orange, this is typical for extremely ripe watermelons, while in young and unripe ones it most often has a white color.

6. Sound - the old grandfather's method

And although only strong men can do this method, it is the most effective for calculating a truly mature fetus. Its essence: a watermelon is taken in the middle (in the plane farthest from the tail) with both hands, brought to the ear and squeezed. A ripe watermelon will begin to crackle slowly. Unripe - will remain silent. You can also choose a watermelon by knocking. A dull sound will indicate ripeness, and a ringing sound will indicate a large amount of water and the “youth” of the fruit.

7. Try it

As a rule, hospitable sellers at markets boldly cut out a red pyramid from watermelons in order to demonstrate the quality of the fruit. This is worth using if you are in doubt when choosing a watermelon on the market. But in the store they allow you to check this differently; they simply cut the watermelon in half, wrapping each half in a separate piece of cling film. All the flaws in such a film can be seen almost under a microscope.

However, remember that sanitary doctors prohibit both market and store sellers from cutting watermelons. Never buy a watermelon that has not just been cut or cut in front of you - it may be dirty, which, again, risks poisoning.

8. Natural watermelon should be grainy

The structure of the watermelon pulp can also be seen on the tenderloin at the market. If the flesh at the cut site is smooth and even, the watermelon is nitrate. That's right, if it has an obvious granular structure, this means that there are few nitrates in the fruit. It is important not to overdo it and not to choose too grainy fruit. Overripe fruits are like this, and their core is not juicy, but fibrous.

9. Watermelon should be pink

And only some particularly northern varieties are red. But these same red varieties are usually not large. If in front of you is a ten-kilogram beauty with scarlet flesh, it is almost certainly the brainchild of nitrates. If the red color gives off a hint of lilac, you can be sure that the fruit contains a lot of nitrates.

Modern technologies: applications for choosing watermelons

Moreover, all of the methods listed (or some of them) are known to many residents of the country. But few people have heard that there are even special applications for smartphones that help determine the ripeness of a watermelon.

For example, iWatermelone is an iPhone application that will help you choose the right watermelon. It costs 99 cents and requires phone firmware version 4 and higher.

How it works?

1. Launch the application, select the size and color of the watermelon.

2. After this, place the iPhone on the watermelon and gently tap the berry three times. After this, the application gives its verdict on the watermelon you purchased.

There is a similar application for Android OS, this is Watermelon Prober. All you have to do to determine if a fruit is ripe is point your phone microphone at the fruit and tap the rind a few times. The Watermelon Prober app will analyze the sound and give its verdict regarding the ripeness of a particular watermelon specimen.

Remember that watermelon is a very healthy berry that helps regulate the body’s water-salt balance and fill it with vitamins and microelements. Well, those who want to lose weight can try the watermelon diet.

Watermelon diet (5 days)

Like the chocolate diet and the apple diet, the watermelon diet is a mono-product diet - which indicates a mandatory predisposition to this product in the diet and the absence of negative reactions of your body to watermelons. Just like the lemon-honey diet and the cabbage diet, the watermelon diet is a very strict diet - which explains its short duration in its pure form.

It should be noted that even if you happily eat watermelon in combination with other foods, it is possible that on the second day of the watermelon diet you experience pain - then stop this diet immediately - watermelon has a strong diuretic effect and this has to be taken into account - the first day -two main weight loss will occur due to the loss of excess water-salt deposits.

The main requirement of the menu is a limit on the number of watermelons eaten per day: 1 kilogram of watermelon per 10 kg of body weight. All other products are prohibited. There are no restrictions regarding meal times - you can eat watermelon at any time of the day. During 5 days of the watermelon diet, you can drink unlimited water (preferably still and non-mineralized - it does not aggravate the feeling of hunger) or green tea. As in the Japanese diet, alcohol in any form should be excluded.

The main advantage of the watermelon diet is due to its easy tolerability without the feeling of hunger inherent in many restrictive diets. The second advantage of the watermelon diet is its high effectiveness in a relatively short time (partly caused by the loss of excess fluid). The third plus is the normalization of metabolism, cleansing the body of toxins, waste and deposits throughout the diet. Weight loss in 5 days of this diet reaches 7 kg.

It is difficult to resist the temptation to buy the earliest fruits and berries, but the appearance of such a fruit can be very strange and the taste suspicious. Sometimes we see cuttingwatermelon white veins what is it? Naturally, farmers want to start harvesting earlier.

Aggressive agricultural technology is a common way to accelerate crop ripening, and primarily nitrogen fertilizers are used to increase yields. There is no point in disputing the need to use fertilizing, but there is a measure for everything.

Causes of white veins in watermelon

Excess nitrogen fertilizers when growing plants negatively affects the health of people who eat their fruits. Basically, excess mineral fertilizers accumulate in the crust. A What are white veins on a watermelon?? These, one might say, fibers , initially have a light shade and provide the fruit with nutrients. But under the influence of nitrates they thicken, their color changes, and then they appearwatermelon has yellow veins or white.

Why does watermelon have loose flesh?

The fruit that looks most appetizing is the one whose pulp has a dense and granular (sugar) appearance. But everyone had to buy strong-looking fruits whose texture was disappointing. Ifwatermelon has loose flesh, this may be due to several reasons: In overripe berries, the inside changes greatly. Near the crust, the pulp retains its density and sugary appearance, and closer to the center it softens.

But this is a completely normal, natural maturation process. If the pulp is not easy loose , but is easily crushed by fingers, became soft , then it is not advisable to eat such a fruit. Improper storage also leads to changes in structure. Many sellers store crops in open areas not protected from sunlight. You buy such a watermelon, cut it - and it soft inside, lethargic.

It's nice to enjoy pieces of chilled watermelon. But if you forgot about them and kept them in the cold for a long time, the frozen pulp can also become cotton wool

Watermelon tastes bitter

Sweet and juicy are the most common characteristics of the most popular melon crop. And if the pulp acquires it bitter aftertaste, it comes as an unpleasant surprise. There may be several reasons for this phenomenon:

• Too long storage can lead to changes in the taste and structure of the melon pulp (it becomes soft);
• in Thailand and Turkey, fruits can be treated with a special gas - ethylene. This way the crop is better preserved during transportation. Most often, under the influence of a substance, the structure of the pulp becomes fibrous , it acquires a bitter taste;
• violation of storage rules, which lead to damage to the crust. Through small cracks, bacteria enter the pulp, and from this it bitter.

You shouldn't buy watermelon slices. Even if the halves are neatly covered with film, it is not known how long ago they were cut, where and under what conditions they were stored.

Uneven flesh color

Different varieties have different shades of flesh. Typically, the rich red flesh is more sugary, but raspberry varieties are juicier, but not very sweet. Even small ones yellow areas of pulp mean a high content of chemicals, and it is better to get rid of such fruits.

Reasons why the flesh turns white

More and more often, when purchasing a watermelon, customers ask for it to be cut. Because there are often cases when a seemingly ripe fruit turns out to be white inside.

Sometimes the pulp may have an uneven color - individual light areas. If this watermelon was not picked completely unripe, then the main reason for the unnatural color is excess nitrates. Yellowish fibers, loose structure - all these signs confirm the large presence of chemicals. Naturally, the appearance of the fruit is not appetizing, and eating it is very dangerous for health.

How to choose a good watermelon

At the end of summer, watermelons fill the shelves of shops and markets. Each buyer has his own selection tricks. But in general, attention is paid to the shape, weight, and shade of the peel.

By the appearance of the bark

A ripe watermelon has an intact rind, without damage, soft areas, or cracks. Often there are fruits with a small crack on the counter. Such damage is an excellent environment for bacteria, so even a large discount cannot be a convincing reason to buy.

Judging ripeness by the shade of the bark is very doubtful. After all, stores sell a variety of varieties, each of which has its own color. But the appearance of the peel may well indicate the maturity of the fruit. If it is ripe, the surface is hard and shiny, but it is easy to scratch even with a fingernail.

According to the size and color of the earthen spot

The crust always shows the place where it came into contact with the ground. The ripeness of the fruit can be judged by the shade of this rounded area. If the spot has a pale yellow tint (even, rather, whitish) or is not there at all, this means that the crop was harvested early and is not ripe. In ready-to-eat specimens, the soil spots have a dark yellow or even orange tint. The diameter of the spot depends on the size of the watermelon and ranges from 5–10 cm.

On a dry stalk

Usually buyers look closely at the stalk. There is an opinion that a dried tail is a sign of maturity. You shouldn’t trust this, because the watermelon could have been picked green, after a while it “ripened” and the tail dried out.

It must be borne in mind that a completely dry stalk or even its absence may be signs of overripeness, and the pulp will turn out to be sluggish and not at all juicy.If the tail is green, it means the watermelon was literally just popped in.

By weight

This sign can be considered objective and subjective at the same time, since buyers have different preferences: some love exclusively large fruits, while some prefer small specimens. Ripe fruits weigh differently in individual varieties. The famous Astrakhan varieties grow no less than 8–10 kg, but the popular “light” gains weight of about 2 kg. Although there are record holders in each variety.

By sound

This is a popular technique that most buyers use. According to popular belief, a ripe watermelon will ring if you pat it with your palm. In reality, the sound is determined by the condition of the pulp. And it is the unripe fruit that rings, but the ripe one will make a dull sound when tapped.

Of course, nitrates cannot be considered the only reason for the strange taste or unusual appearance of watermelons. Sudden changes in temperature, periods of drought or rain, soil composition - all these factors affect the quality of the fruit.