my toms not going red

staceydaisy

Hi wonder if any1 can help me. My toms just aint going red there still on the plant and still growing nicely but just not turning red

Im worried its gonna get cold and they die

these are the moneymaker variety

tanith

My larger Toms are slow to ripen , I just brought half a dozen in and put them on the kitchen window sill, they are already turning after 2 days

parsonswife8

Ours are light green..my OH has been hanging banana skins on the trusses of tomatoes.

rlatarche

The best thing you can do for tomatoes is when they have got to a good size, give the bush a trim and get rid of the majority of the leaves. This exposes more fruit to the natural sunlight and accelerates the ripening process. I've just tried this tip and within a few days the fruits are going yellow/orange! (only works with bush varieties)

parsonswife8

rlatarche wrote: »

The best thing you can do for tomatoes is when they have got to a good size, give the bush a trim and get rid of the majority of the leaves. This exposes more fruit to the natural sunlight and accelerates the ripening process. I've just tried this tip and within a few days the fruits are going yellow/orange! (only works with bush varieties)

OH has trimmed the bushes but the weather has been so iffy, we needed some more sunshine.:(

LJM

mine are only just turning red now so it looks like im going to have a vast amount of tomatoes in one go

SouthernLol

Have you pinched out the growing tips?

If you have a bush variety or a cordon that's got a stray side shoot you missed then each tip needs to be pinched out.

If the plant is still growing up at a rate of knots and getting plenty of water and food then it won't see the need to ripen the fruits. Trimming off excess leaves can also help - both for cordon and bush varieties - but you need to balance the plant's need for energy production v. getting more light to the fruits.

HTH

SouthernLol

PS If you still have green fruit at the end of the season then there's always green tomato chutney........

foreign_correspondent

rlatarche wrote: »

The best thing you can do for tomatoes is when they have got to a good size, give the bush a trim and get rid of the majority of the leaves. This exposes more fruit to the natural sunlight and accelerates the ripening process. I've just tried this tip and within a few days the fruits are going yellow/orange! (only works with bush varieties)

It is heat that ripens them, not light, so they would have ripened anyway.

SouthernLol

It is heat that ripens them, not light, so they would have ripened anyway.

Erm, yes, but if the leaves are shading them then they'll be cooler than if the sun shines on them directly surely?

Zazen999

Nip a few of the biggest toms off and once the plant thinks it's losing it's fruit, it will put more energy into ripening. And do chop off the lowest 80% of leaves. They don't need them; they only use the top 20% at this stage.

Put the ones that you chop off into a drawer under a teatowel and they will ripen off pretty quickly.

lizzyb1812

If your tomatoes are growing fine then please don't fret because they aren't ripening yet.

I've no idea where you are based but look at this site:

http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/main/weather.asp

You can set it for your location and it will tell you when the first frost will arrive. I'm in Suffolk and my first frost is expected in NOVEMBER and it's still August so a long way off. It might be raining more than you'd like but it's not cold as in wintery.

By all means take off any manky leaves and if they are tall tomatoes stop them from growing further up by pinching out the top shoot, but otherwise if they are healthy just keep feeding and watering.

I've got several varieties and some are well behind others - you may just have a late developer (Shirley in my case - but they are going to be really big!)

And when you need recipes to deal with the eventual glut, just come back on here :rotfl: