Help with tomatoes please

room512

Hi
Need your help if possible. OH and I have been growing tomatoes in our greenhouse and they've done very well. Only problem is they are all green and not going red! We still have flowers that are turning into tomatoes. OH says I should pick them all and leave them to ripen in the drawer with a red tomato. So question is do I pick them now or wait another couple of weeks? I'm feeding them every time I water which is every couple of days.
Thanks in advance.

Ash_McCloud

Copied and pasted -

Ideally, the best way to ripen tomatoes is always naturally on the vine. This is not always possible if they are under threat from frost as often happens.
There are many ways to encourage ripening. Here are my recommended three methods to ripen those green tomatoes:-
Pick and store method.
Bring the unripe green tomatoes into your house. Put them one layer deep in a cardboard box,(or a paper bag) with a layer of newspaper between the tomatoes. Inspect your crop regularly, when they start to colour remove the paper and store at room temperature, but not in direct sunlight. I never put my tomatoes on the windowsill to ripen as they can be scalded by the sun, or they are softened without ripening. Tomatoes ripen from the bottom up and from the inside out, not mention all those good vitamins A and C being stripped from the tomatoes as they are scaled by the sun.
Hanging upside down method.
You can dig up the vines or take them indoors if in a pot. Strip the leaves off the vines and hang from a height. This can be done in a semi heated garage or greenhouse, to ripen tomatoes (kind of)naturally on the vine. It replicates the tomatoes being left on the vine as much as possible.
Quick Ripen with fruit method.
This is by far the fastest method I have found to ripen my tomatoes. If you put your green tomatoes in a paper bag with an apple they will ripen quicker. The Ethylene gas given off by fruit will help to ripen the tomatoes quickly especially in an enclosed space such as a paper bag.
The warmer the area you keep the tomatoes in the quicker they will ripen. You can stagger ripening if you keep some in a warmer place than others. You can therefore have a longer more constant supply of tomatoes if timed correctly.
Tomatoes that are whitish, yellowish or are in the early stages of pink to red, are the ones that will ripen the first. Bright green ones are really slow to ripen and some may not get there at all!

Don't despair you can always use those tomatoes that won't ripen with my Fried Green Tomatoes Recipe. Follow the link below:
www.all-about-tomatoes.com [http://www.all-about-tomatoes.com].
Enjoy those tomatoes.
Barbara from www.all-about-tomatoes.com [http://www.all-about-tomatoes.com].

wallbash

Or you can just be a bit more patient . Still having the same problem in a couple of weeks , we will all panic.
Ps weather forecast looks better for the next few days, then you will have a glut and will be posting another problem.

Sally_A

Sit tight, but cut off new growth and flowers, hopefully you have at least 6 - 8 trusses per plant waiting to turn red by now.

Yes, you can hurry them along with methods shown above, but they taste best if sun ripened on the plant.

MountainView_2

I say leave them, as there is still some time left and they are in the greenhouse anyway. Also, ripening off the vine will impair there flavour relative to leaving them on. I have found that leaving banana skins at the base of the pot or soil helps to ripen them a little quicker.

markandkate

Your plants are probably still trying to grow new ftuits rather than ripening the ones that it has already produced. Cut off all the flowers and small tomatoes as there is not too much of the growing season left now and anything that is not fully grown now will probably never ripen. You can also cut off the stems where the new growth is as the plant is doing what it is supposed to do and continuing to grow,. You should also keep cutting out new growth now but continue to fee theplant and you should be Ok

teachergirl

Hi there, can I suggest if you still have flowers on the plant it may be worth removing them and pinching out the growing tip. If the plant is putting it's energy into making more tomatoes the ones that are on the plant ripen more slowly. If there are no flowers the plants thinks" cripes I've got to put my energy into ripening the fruit so I can make more baby plants via seeds" We always stop the plant producing more flowers after about 5 or 6 trusses sometimes less if grown outside and started late, because you just end up with lots of green tomatoes and there is only so much green chutney anyone can stand!:)

room512

Thank you all so much - I thought about cutting off the flowers but then wondered if that was the right thing to do. :T