2023 - the good, the not so good but hopefully not ugly of growing your own!

droopsnoot

I have plenty of green tomatoes on my plants, a handful of red ones, but as we head into September I wonder if the rest are actually going to ripen at any point. I'm still getting new tomatoes starting, too. I have a similar issue with chillies, but as I've lost track of what types are growing, I don't know whether they're all actually supposed to turn red or not.

alicef

droopsnoot said:

I have plenty of green tomatoes on my plants, a handful of red ones, but as we head into September I wonder if the rest are actually going to ripen at any point. I'm still getting new tomatoes starting, too. I have a similar issue with chillies, but as I've lost track of what types are growing, I don't know whether they're all actually supposed to turn red or not.

I stopped watering about a week ago and chopped off the very top of the vines, and toms. are ripening fine, (my toms are in a polytunnel).  Back up plan to ripen, is to put them in a paper bag with, say a banana - the ethylene given off is meant to promote ripening.  Re. chillies - not all chillies turn red when they ripen, some go orange or yellow for example.  I have some black chillies - look great but not very hot at the moment - if I were to leave them on the plant to go red then they would be hotter.

carinjo

I've used the very ripe tomatoes as a spread on bread. The rest in fridge and am making a paste for pizza.
@droopsnoot i culled the branches with tiny tomatoes and just left the ones that had proper trusses. 
My pickling cucumbers are not playing along. I have 2 ready to pickle and the rest very tiny! My first year growing these, so might have to try again next year. 
We had a huge thunderstorm here, so no need to water over the bank holiday weekend. 

KajiKita

Finally harvested my first sweet pepper of the season! It’s been such an unproductive year here! 🤷‍♀️

KK

Suffolk_lass

None of my peppers are going yellow, despite being in the greenhouse. I have picked three to put in with the picked windowsill tomatoes, to see if that is better. As for chillies, the Jalopeno and Cayenne are fine. The 6 tabasco plants are only now developing flower buds so are likely to be a write off. 

I'm not a fan of the ethylene from bananas to ripen tomatoes as my experience is that the tomatoes rot really quickly.

grandmanerd

carinjo said:

For how long can i leave green tomatoes on the windowsill to ripen? At some point i guess it safer to turn it into something like chutney?

Put them in a brown paper bag in a drawer or if you have a higher ledge on that window put them up there - they look as though they're in the shadow of the window and depending on the angle the sun comes in at, they just might not be getting enough. Could try putting them on a board or pieces of cardboard to get them looking out of the window

droopsnoot

alicef said:

I stopped watering about a week ago and chopped off the very top of the vines, and toms. are ripening fine, (my toms are in a polytunnel).  Back up plan to ripen, is to put them in a paper bag with, say a banana - the ethylene given off is meant to promote ripening.  Re. chillies - not all chillies turn red when they ripen, some go orange or yellow for example.  I have some black chillies - look great but not very hot at the moment - if I were to leave them on the plant to go red then they would be hotter.

Yes, this is the problem I have, caused by losing track of the pots and seeds. As I also don't really remember what types I planted - as well as not knowing which is where, and which didn't come to anything - I didn't want to start harvesting only to find I've wasted my time by eating them too early. I've had one red chilli so far which was very nice and spicy, and I've another one with is probably 95% red, so will be the next for the chop.

Interesting about stopping watering, I might try that on a couple to see what happens. I've been lopping the tops off, but all the tomato plants are very tall before they even started flowering. I've heard of putting them with other stuff, for me it means buying bananas specially for the job, which is perhaps no big deal. Pity it doesn't work with bruised windfall apples as I keep cycling past a big tub of them.

alicef

@droopsnout I always start with best intentions on making notes; labelling; succession planning - then it all goes to pot.  The labels for the garlic, particularly, always seem to disappear from the end of the row.   

I think there are a myriad of fruit/veg that give off ethylene - so you don't have to buy in anything special.  Tomatoes do - so if you have some that are ripe then put them together.  

It's so nice for people to put out fruit for people to take away - all you need now is to cycle past some blackberry bushes and you're set - I adore apple and blackberry crumble/pie/anything with that combination!

Suffolk_lass

Ooh, that has just reminded me, I've got a tray of blackberries in the freezer, that I picked on the dog-walk yesterday. It is an excellent year for them

sammy_kaye18

Its been fairly unproductive here in south wales with veg wise. I have had a few rough months though so concentrating on the garden was put on the back burner. 

Was happy yesterday to see I have a good few cucumbers on the vine after I actually managed to get five to pin them up to let them see the light of day,

then decided to move all my strawberry plants since they are overtaking the bed they were in and I was finding runners everywhere. 

Found a bag as well that I remembered putting spuds into and the leaves were dying back so pulled them to find a nice little haul in there too. Will do us for tea or two anyway and I have another 3 bags and 2 tubs to pull at some point but Im so glad I staggered their planting, 

other than that Ive been out blackberry picking, no one round here seems to do it so I will continue to make the most of it. Made a batch of blackberry jam this morning and now its cooling on the side.