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how to ripen green tomatoes?

15 years ago

I have a lot of green tomatoes. Sadly temperatures are falling and as are my hopes for them ripening into delicious red mealtime additions. My question is whether I can pick and ripen them in a brown paper bag? Or must I move on and look for a great green salsa recipe?

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Comments (7)

melva02
15 years ago
Can you leave them on the vine until they start to turn red? If you pick them while they're totally green, they'll never get completely ripe, though they will redden and soften somewhat. If they get a chance to turn red on the vine, they will ripen better. Ethylene is what "ripens" them so you can put them in a bag if you want, or just let them sit on the counter, preferably in the sun.

We are only seeing lows in the 60s in Richmond...why not leave them on the vine until the first frost?

Melissa
User
15 years ago
As Melissa suggests, leave them on the vine as long as possible. When they do need to be picked due to frost, I find wrapping them individually in newspaper and placing them in a warm spot works well for me. Check them every few days, they should ripen up red enough.

Bill
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Something that probably works, Karen! Let me tell what doesn't work for me: A lot of people wrap their tomatoes in newspaper. When I've tried that, I've ended up with lots of rotten tomatoes! I forget to unwrap and look. Instead, I do the very simple thing of putting them in a basket and "sorting thru" them every few days. Moving from 1 container to another gives me a chance to separate out the ripe ones. This year's tomatoes lingered on the vines longer than most years. Many, many green cherries went down before the onslaught of Jack Frost but few of the larger varieties. Got lucky with warm weather up here near the border. I know that we all like to test the climate envelop with late-developing varieties but there's some real value in the early-ripening indeterminates. Bloody Butchers came back later and so did Early Girls. I almost hate to admit but will do so here: I still grow Early Girl and have for over 20 years . . . Just a timid tomato grower, I guess. Luckily, there are those who encourage me with appropriate choices for my garden that would otherwise go unimagined. Steve
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Just put them in the house in the kitchen on a counter or somewhere else away from the sun, meaning no windowsill which dries them out and no paper bags with a cut apple or whatever since all that does is to increase the concentration of the gas ethylene, which is part of the ripening process naturally but when in a paper bag it's like the gassing of fruits that is done commercially and those are the anemic looking lousy tasting fruits that we see in the winter. I hope that there's at least a blush on those fruits since total greenies don't usually ripen up with the best of tastes, but since you already have harvested the fruits, just go fo it. Well, that certainly was a long sentence. LOL BTW the name of the variety is Cherokee Purple, not Purple Cherokee and I ought to know since my best friend Craig LeHoullier named it, but Seeds by Design in CA, a wholsale place, sent out seed lists with Purple Cherokee on it and maybe still does. Carolyn, who is envious of ANYONE with mature fruits these days, b'c her plants are so behind that it's dicey that anything will mature before the first killing frost. There, she said it, killing frost. Sigh.
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There's a similar thread on that "other" tomato forum, to which I just contributed the following: One year I had pretty good luck pulling up several whole plants, pruning them a little and hanging them upside down from the (high) ceiling of my garage. I don't think the really hard green ones ripened, but many of the others did, and beautifully (perhaps only the ones showing some blush of color, I don't remember). Since we've moved prematurely into fall -- one weather guy referred to this month as Septober here in Minnesota--and I have a ton of tomatoes on my plants, I'm certainly going to try this method again and hope for the best. *******BTW, the idea that one is not supposed to mention other, non-GW forums here strikes me as rather silly. if there's a good reason for it, perhaps someone could enlighten me. Thanks. ***************
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I spread them out in a single layer in a shallow cardboard box with a thick layer of newspaper underneath them. They are kept inside (60-70 degrees) and NOT put in the sun. Most ripen well over several weeks. There are usually a few that rot, often very small ones or ones with some damage initially. Check for bad ones a couple times a week...the newspaper helps absorb the mess if you miss one. If I have a lot and want to delay ripening, some will go in the garage where temps are cooler, 40-55 degrees. I bring them in when I want to speed up ripening. Putting a few in a paper bag with a banana or apple can speed ripening, too, though I seldom do this. I have some inside now that were picked in mid October and are now ripe. We have eaten many others that already ripened and thrown out some rotters. There are a few green ones in the garage yet that will come inside soon. In my rather short summer area I have greenies at the end of every season. When they ripen off the vine later they do not have the great taste of ones from the summer garden, but they are as good as most store bought tomatoes. They are okay for fresh eating and make a great pot of chili!
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digdirt2
15 years ago
You can also pull up the entire plant, roots and all, and hang it upside down in the garage or basement and the fruit will ripen. They taste better than the ones done in paper or in bags.

We do it every year and get ripe tomatoes till early Dec.

Otherwise, as others have said, as soon as they begin to show some color, pick them and let them finish on the kitchen counter. Once they 'break' (get a color blush) they will ripen fine off the vine.

Dave
brokenbar
15 years ago
I pick all of mine and put them into those black growing trays which I lay then on a sheet of plastic on the bed in our unheated guestroom (we do not encourage anyone to linger...) I ripen nearly another 2000 tomatoes this way. They all turn totally red, I have no mold or other problems. I have done this for 30 years and it really works well for me. Wyoming gets too cold too fast for me to hang the plants. They would freeze the tomatoes solid before Thanksgiving.
dirtbert
15 years ago
One more suggestion...

I always pick mine as soon as they show signs of blushing (some every day) and collect them on the kitchen counter piled together. The collection will ripen pretty quickly and then the plants can focus their energy on turning more red.
I always do this trick to ensure I have the most tomatoes ready at one time for canning in as few batches as possible.
paddy_99
15 years ago
My experience here in Kansas has been to leave them on the vine as long as possible. I have had some great tasting tomatoes that were picked in the middle of October. The size was small but the taste was good,
gran2
15 years ago
I use Bill's method, wrapping individually in newspaper and letting ripen in the cellar. All tomatoes won't ripen this way; they have to be past a certain point of maturity or they just rot. Try not to use a fridge. According to a test run by Organic Gardening magazine, the taste changes noticeably by the hour when tomatoes are refrigerated. Also, ph changes when the vines die, so tomato eating is great, but canning is out.

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