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. ***************

My garden usually includes somewhere around 300 tomato plants every year. If ripening was a problem, I'd never have ripe tomatoes, the first part of the year, I pick all my tomatoes green. In the middle of the growing season it becomes a tremendous effort to store at least a ton of tomatoes most of the times, so I get behind. Why do I pick tomatoes green. Mostly it is to keep them from becoming too big, customers talk big and buy smaller. There are always plenty of pound and larger tomatoes to be found. Finally the primary reason is, I only plant indeterminate tomatoes, which want to keep going forever, except if you allow the tomotoes to vine ripen, it sends a signal to the plant, "Job Done", my plants will grow to 8 and 9 feet tall, then fall over my cages(from the weight of the fruit in the upper branches) and finally trail the ground. What do I store them in when ripening, since I raise my tomatoes from cradle to grave, the seed flats doubled up become the ripening containers, and the stacked shelves, I use for germination and growing become the ripening shelves(I sell plants too.) Would guess the biggest question would be "Isn't the taste affected?), no not in my opinion, the variety has everything to do with taste. Welcome anyone that will try both in an unbiased taste test as I have or just a differing opinion. I've tried very hard to get anyone to say they can tell. I use a mixture of dishsoap, vegetable oil, baking soda, and skim milk as my only source of spray. The plants get a heaping shovel full of composted material in every hole before planting as their only source of food for the year. I welcome any critique of my tomato enterprise, or ideas.

This depends on too many factors, including weather, sun exposure, plant variety, and stage of growth of the plant. My experience is 2-3 weeks not days. But it depends. I pick my tomatoes at first blush and let them finish ripening indoors. I made sauce the other night and the sweetness was overwhelming, I have no complaints with this method. The tomatoes pretty much reach physiological maturity at first blush - they do not need further support from the plant. This is a common practice.

Since once tomatoes start ripening, they get absolutely nothing more from the plant, personally I would go ahead and puck them so 1.) they don't sunscald and 2.) they won't be affected by critters/bugs or weather. We always pick ours just after first blush.