How do I ripen green tomatoes before cold weather?
Tomato None Given
I would like to know what is the best thing to do with tomatoes that are still on the plant which have not ripened. I have several plants which still have fruit but I am worried about the weather turning colder and potentially killing them before they have a chance to ripen. Can I move the plants indoors or is there a way to get the tomatoes to ripen?
Posted by: Yvonne
(1 point)
Posted: October 18, 2013
Answers
put up plastic row covers and toss banana and apple scraps under your plants. This works better if you pick the tomatoes and put them in a paper bag with the scraps. I've also heard you can stress the plant by damaging its' root system and that'll trigger the plant to grow fruit faster but I've never tried.
Posted by: J.D. Archer
(31 points)
Posted: October 18, 2013
Lindsay McMenemy commented,
that sounds like an interesting idea, I assume there is some kind of scientific basis for using apple and banana? perhaps you could elaborate to explain for others?
over 7 years ago.
To answer Lindsay's question: The fruit scraps contain ethylene gas, a ripening hormone [see http://bit.ly/17y97cD]. But I agree with J.D. that a better strategy would be to place some unblemished, hard-green, mature tomatoes into a paper bag with an apple or two and set them in a cool pale to hasten ripening.
I've placed hard green tomatoes on a wooden rack in a cool, dark cellarway (make sure they don't touch) and left them to ripen naturally over several weeks. The very firm, sound slicers work best if you want to use this ripening technique. You could also set bowl of apples nearby to hurry them along. Of course, like all fruits ripened after harvest, your indoor-ripened tomatoes won't taste quite so good as the ones that ripened on the vine.
I've placed hard green tomatoes on a wooden rack in a cool, dark cellarway (make sure they don't touch) and left them to ripen naturally over several weeks. The very firm, sound slicers work best if you want to use this ripening technique. You could also set bowl of apples nearby to hurry them along. Of course, like all fruits ripened after harvest, your indoor-ripened tomatoes won't taste quite so good as the ones that ripened on the vine.
Posted by: Peg Boyles
(3 points)
Posted: October 18, 2013
You could try moving the plants indoors if there is adequate light. As soon as they start to show some color, the fruits will ripen off the vine at room temperature. If left outside, pinch off any new flower clusters or tiny tomato fruits as they will not have time to ripen and this will divert the plants' resources to the other fruit to hasten ripening.
Posted by: Joan Allen
(4 points)
Posted: October 18, 2013
One year, I had quite a few tomatoes to ripen indoors, and found the process of paper bags with tomatoes hanging all over the place sort-of messy. Instead, I took the cardboard trays that you can get at stores like Aldis or Save-a-lot that cans are shipped in and laid a layer of tomatoes in each, then stacked cross-wise in a nice sturdy short tower of 4 or 5 trays. You could add apples or bananas in there if you wanted. Anyway, they ripened up nicely in a corner of the room out of the way, and weren't bumping up against each other and bruising when moved in bags. You could do the same thing with pears or other ripening fruits, when needed.
Posted by: April
(2 points)
Posted: October 18, 2013
1 Comment