Susan,

They do look sort of mahoghany brown with a bit of green on the shoulders when ripe. Some have more green than others. See the linked photo.

As with any tomato, you can tell by touch too. When they're too green they are harder when you squeeze them. When they are ripe, they are a bit softer.

When I first started growing black tomatoes (Southern Night and Black Krim were my first ones) about a decade ago, I had a hard time knowing exactly when they were ripe and let the first few stay on the plant far too long before I got the hang of knowing when they were ripe. Luckily, cherry tomatoes hold well on the vine and are more forgiving than large tomatoes, so they're a great one for a 'first' black tomato variety.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Image: Black Cherry Tomato

Thanks, Dawn! I surmise they are not quite ripe enough yet, and I guess I'll be throwing some sheets over my plants the next couple of nights since we are supposed to be having some frost.

My containers sit right next to my concrete driveway, so I'm hoping they'll get some warmth from that, too. I just have so many tomatos that I am really hoping to harvest a few of before it gets too cold for them, but it's looking less and less likely that I'll be able to have a very large harvest.

Also meant to ask, if I lug a couple of those 5 gallon buckets into the house, will the tomatos continue to ripen in a sunny south window?

Susan

Susan,

You're welcome.

I've protected plants by covering them up with sheets, blankets, etc. in past years and it works pretty good as long as the temps don't go to far below freezing. I hope you can successfully cover up yours and keep them going a while longer.

I always put my winter tomatoes (the ones I plant in pots in February) on the concrete with the south-facing wall of the garage right behind them and I do think the heat helps them grow and mature tomatoes more quickly. I also think the radiant heat might help them a little at night, although I always either cover them up with blankets or drag them into the garage on cold nights. When you're trying to either keep fall tomatoes going late or get spring tomatoes going early, you have to use every trick in the book!

Don't forget that often the last green tomatoes will ripen up indoors on a counter when you absolutely must pick them because the temps are going so low that covering them up won't help. I've had ripe tomatoes very late into December from those last ones coloring up indoors over time.

And, yes, if you lug a couple of those 5-gallon buckets indoors, it is likely the tomatoes will continue to ripen in a sunny south window. They most likely will ripen more slowly and they may not have the same flavor as a summer tomato, but they'll still taste better than grocery store tomatoes.

If you want to grow indoor tomatoes in a future year either early in spring, or late in fall, or throughout the winter, three that are absolutely perfect for indoor tomatoes are Red Robin, Yellow Canary and Orange Pixie. They can be grown in surprisingly small pots (they say as small as 4" or 8" pots for Red Robin, but I wouldn't go smaller than 1 or 2 gallons, I think, for the best yields). All 3 varieties produce a high yield for such small plants and the flavor of all three is surprisingly good---not the best tomatoes you'll ever have, but not bad, especially for indoor tomatoes. Both Red Robin and Yellow Canary get about 8-12" tall in pots (though about 6" taller than that in the ground in the summer time) and Orange Pixie gets a bit taller--maybe 15-18" in a pot indoors and sometimes a little taller in the ground in the summertime. When I have grown them, they all three had as much or more fruit than foliage. A couple of years ago I grew these three varieties as a 'border' around a bed of larger tomato plants.....just one more way of squeezing a few more tomatoes out of one bed.

Dawn

Well, I took some sheets outside and covered my plants. Hope we don't get too much wind because I'm not sure how they will hold up under windy conditions. They're in the shade now and I'll go out and uncover them tomorrow morning around mid-morning. They will be in the shade til then. My sun exposure changes in the fall to where I don't get as much full sun - woes of city livin' and what with the shorter daytime hours and all. We're not supposed to freeze here, but it's supposed to get down to around 36 degrees - too close for comfort - and 38 degrees tomorrow night. If it was just one night, I wouldn't worry so much, but two nights in a row warrants some protective measures. I also watered everything well today, too. I am starting to remember a few words of advice from you, Dawn!

I think I came across one of those diminutive little tomatoes you mentioned, Dawn, when googling dwarf tomatoes the other day. I couldn't believe there was a tomatoe that small, and yes, they did say it could grow in a 4" pot. Unbelievable. I might have to try that next year. I've already brought in a couple pots of some Esperanza to winter over inside since it didn't reach flowering size this summer - these are the red flowering vine-types, and I don't know why they were so pokey.

I was channel surfing today and saw a portable flourescent LED rechargeable light and thought they would be a great idea for gro lights. The charger is built in, so you just plug it in to an outlet and it recharges itself. It would come in handy for all sorts of things.

I can't wait to grow tomatoes next year, but I think I did fairly well this year. Either that, or just beginner's luck, but I had a lot of help from you guys here on the forum. There will come a day when I don't have a lot of questions......maybe.

Appreciate you, Jay, Carol, and everybody else who has chimed in on my tomato posts!

Susan

Susan,

I agree that 36 degrees is too close for comfort, but think that well-watered, covered plants ought to come through the night just fine.

Wind is actually good. If you have enough wind, frost can't settle on the plants! I am not sure what the magic mph number is, but I know I rarely see frost settle on plants if our wind is higher than 6 or 8 mph. In fall, it is hard to know what to expect....sometimes there is so much wind before sunset that I have to use clothespins to hold sheets or row covers in place but often the wind drops at or shortly after sunset. Conversely, there have been times that it was so still that I didn't clip the sheets into place only to have wind come up during the night and blow them off the plants. The good thing about that, though, is that if it is windy enough to blow the sheets off the plants, then it is windy enough to keep frost from settling on the plants unless the wind stops during the night.

To the extent that anything I said helped you with your tomatoes this year, you're welcome. However, you already were an "ace" gardener before this year and I think you would have done fine with tomatoes without any help!

With the esperanza, do you think its bloom could be triggered by decreasing day-langth? Or, if seed-raised and this is its first year, maybe it needs a little 'age' before it will bloom? I've grown the yellow esparanza, but not the red one.

Dawn

I think, at least in this particular case, it needs some maturity before it will bloom. I've grown the yellow, too, but this is a first for me with the red. It tends to be more vining than the yellow. I just want to see how it blooms eventually, so that's why I brought it in. I hope, too, that the Salvias continue to bloom for awhile longer. I have 'Lady in Red', 'Forest Fire', 'Black and Blue', 'Hot Lips', 'Golden Delicious', and 'Cherry Queen' blooming so pretty right now. And, although the hummers aer gone, the Cloudless Sulphus, Gulf Fritillars, and Monarchs are enjoying them.

Thanks for the complement, but I truly feel like a novice, especially when it comes to tomatos and other vegetables. So, you really have been a tremendous help in that area.

Susan