Does anyone have any red tomatoes yet

Primrose

All this rain is causing a lot of my tomatoes to split - a real pain when they're not fully ripened. And to make matters worse, have just received another blight warning for our area.

Sunnyday

i`ve been picking both Ailsa Craig and Ferline for a couple of weeks now.

At first it was just the odd one or two ripening but now they`re almost all on the turn. Three of the plants have finished altogether and have been put outside. The other 6 or so are all fighting for space in the greenhouse as the chillies and peppers are taking over.

SD

lavendergirl

I don't have tomatoes, but my plums are late this year too, must be the weather or lack of

mary-op

Our cherry tomatoes have been going great guns but the first of the 'normal' ones to ripen had a split in and we've had two more since then that were ok.

frazzbo

I'm hoping the warm weather today and yesterday might do something to move my tomatoes along - still no sign of any turning red!! Bizzarely my peppers have started to turn red at last, but no sign on the tomatoes!

Am I the only one?

Primrose

frazzbo - you don't say whether your tomatoes are outdoors or in a greenhouse. If they're outdoors, bearing in mind your more northern situation, I'd be tempted to pick them pretty soon before the rapidly dropping night temperatures start to spoil the skins. If you lay them on newspaper covered trays (the newspaper helps to absorb and retain any heat) and put them on an indoor window sill, they will start to ripen eventually. I have one final green outdoor pepper to ripen. All the others turned red a while ago and have been picked, so I may bring the remaining plant indoors, or have one green pepper to use up! Prefer them when they go red though - they're much sweeter.

emiff6

Primrose wrote: »

If you lay them on newspaper covered trays (the newspaper helps to absorb and retain any heat) and put them on an indoor window sill, they will start to ripen eventually.

I bring green toms in with a fair amount of the main stalk on each truss, and put them in a jug of water like flowers in a vase, then put them on my sunny kitchen windowsill. It keeps them fresher, the snuffs stay green instead of withering. They ripen quickly, but this is probably 'cos I always have a big bowl of bananas and apples in the kitchen. Apples help stuff ripen as well as bananas, (and bring pineapples into flower faster too).

frazzbo

Thanks Primrose and Emiff. My tomatoes are outside; I have 3 plants in the ground and 3 plants in pots. About 3 or 4 weeks ago I cut off one truss to bring inside and only now are they starting to turn red! The inside of my house isn't very warm though, nor does it get much sun, so I think that's part of the problem. Might just end up having to make loads of green tomato chutney!

meg72

I have grown the Red Robin cherry type for the first time this year and am absolutely delighted with them, I have been picking ripe red ones for about three weeks now, and of course they are small enough, plant only growns 12 to 14 inches high so small enough to pick up and put on a sunny? windowsill.

I have now decided I will only ever grow this type again. Got really fed up with green tomato chutney every year.

rosie383

Last year I put my green tomatoes in a shoe box with a ripe banana, but this year, they are on my kitchen windowsill in a seed tray with a plastic propagator lid on top with a ripe banana in with them. They are ripening daily, enough for lots in a salad each day. Mind you, none of my big toms are red......just lots of cherry toms. Keeps the kids fed anyway.
I am still getting quite a lot of tomatoes ripening out in the garden, but probably not for much longer as it really feels like autumn now. I had a lot of split tomatoes, so I just made a simple tomato sauce today and bunged it in portions in the freezer.