Some honeydews slip and there are some which have a yellow rind when ripe. Variety name is important. Did you plant a Gold Rind honey dew, if so it will color up when ripe. Most honey dew varieties only have a subtle change of hue in their white rinds. The older varieties typically take 100 to 110 days to ripen. That is not exact as conditions do affect ripening, but have you allowed enough time for your melon. Other than that, you already know about pressing the blossom scar and smelling the melon.

OK, on doing a little research, I learn that honeydews DO NOT get sweeter once they are off the vine. But they will still "ripen", in that the skin color will change and they will get a little softer. But I'm primarily after sweetness, rather than rind color or softness.

I'm not going to judge ripeness by days, because I know that temperatures make a big difference in that, and it's HOT here.

As it turns out, mine are "Orangeflesh" honeydew. I don't believe they do full slip.

The change of color isn't really that subtle. The melons go from light green to light yellow. I've got four of the former, and one of the latter on the vine. I understand this is the case also with more common honeydews. In the store, I see most as green, but one or two have that yellowish tinge. The common advice given in picking store fruit is to look at color and softness. It sounds, however, like that doesn't necessarily make for better flavor. The yellower and softer one might just have been sitting around longer, not getting any sweeter.

But I'm still waiting for that softening of the flower end!

So here I am, two-three weeks after my Orangeflesh honeydew changed color. Still waiting for the end to soften. So I grab hold of it, like I do everyday to test it, and plunk! - it slips. The stem pulls off. It has self-declared as being ripe. I have to suspect the color change weeks ago really marked ripeness, and the slip was just what the melon does when it is sick and tired of hanging around. In fact, there was minor splitting at the stem end.

That's a lesson for my next one, which should be in a week or two. I'm not going to wait for the end to soften.

So here's what the harvested melon looks like sitting next to an unripe melon.

Yes, the color change is pretty obvious. Creamy light yellow. The ripe Orangeflesh melon may be more colorful than a generic ripe honeydew because the flesh inside this one is orange. When melons get ripe, they start to exude sugars from the inside. That's what makes them smell sweet. Sp a little orange from the inside makes the outside look creamy light yellow.

The taste is AWESOME (but don't think honeydew - it's really a very sweet canteloupe.)