As with most vegetables, you can harvest them at any time so long as you think they're large enough to eat at all. The younger they are, the more crisp, tender, and delicate they will be. This includes eggplant, potatoes, peppers, beans, okra, leafy vegetables, broccoli, asparagus, articokes, peas, zucchini, peas, etc. Tomatoes and tomatillos are an exception but they are a fruit. So like most fruit, you want to ripen them on the plant. he fruits of the eggplant are edible from the time they are one-third grown until ripe. You can harvest the fruits when they are 6 to 8 inches long and glossy. Fruit should be large, shiny, and a uniformly deep purple color. When the side of the fruit is pressed slightly with thumbnail and an indentation remains, the fruit is ripe. Long, slender, Japanese eggplant may be ready to harvest from finger or hotdog size. If fruit is a dull color and has brown seeds, it is too ripe and should be discarded. Use a knife or pruning shears rather than breaking or twisting the stems. Leave the large, usually green, calyx attached to the fruit. Here is a link that might be useful: Harvesting eggplant

I have hundreds of green tomatoes that are taking forever to ripen. Most of the large tomatoes that have ripened are ruined by a caterpillar that chews its way into the tomato and leaves it full of brown feces as it eats the inside of the tomato. In the process it makes the tomato ripen early. If the damage is not too great I have been cutting the damaged part out and eating the undamaged part as these are my only ripe tomatoes. I did some research and think the name of this caterpillar is the Tomato Fruitworm. Supposedly natural predators may keep it in check, but I guess I don't have any or enough in my garden. The article says BT will also work, but takes three days to kill them, in which time they could have already damaged the tomato. Anyone know about how many dollars worth of BT it would take to treat 36 tomato plants? Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Fruitworm

In Montana, most of my tomatoes (started by me) become fully ripened in August. However, tomatoes I started this year on 3-25 (and transplanted to 1-gallon pots at some point) ripened in July (early July through the first 3/4 of the month). NOTE: Those started on 3-25 (and transplanted into 5-GALLON pots) ripened earlier--in late June. Transplanting for both sets was the first week of June. (BTW, I have never seen any stress caused by transplanting, no matter the size of my plant/pot. My tomato plants really take off after they go in the ground.) Those started later, on 4-10, have NOT RIPENED as of August 1. ALL of my tomato plants are loaded with tomatoes, ripe or not. This data doesn't give us the same info as comparing the planting of 6" plants vs. 12" ones would, but it shows that starting early CAN produce earlier tomatoes, especially, IMO, if bigger pots are used, as needed. I did, btw, plant some tomatoes in 4" pots (that were very tall and should have been transplanted into 1-gallon pots) at the same time that I planted the ones in 1-gallon pots in the ground. Those made a good effort in catching up, in size at least, but they were just flowering when others had lots of fruit on the vines. Were any of my plants root bound, particularly the ones in 4" pots? Not that I recall. In fact, I need to learn how to produce more root and less growing top because my tomatoes get too tall before transplanting outside (I have them on a southern-facing, plastic-covered back porch WITH a roof, so they don't get full sun, by any means, which is the main reason they get so tall). I like starting plants earlier than recommended, especially since I moved to this colder climate. I believe, if the roots are given plenty of room, this method can produce healthy plants that produce earlier, just like with flowers that you want to bloom earlier. But beware--it's a lot of work to bring all those plants in big pots inside every time the temp looks like it's going to dip below 45 degrees F at night!

I generally grow 100 to 150 tomato plants in my garden every year and have easily grown 500 to 600 varieties over the years. I also breed tomatoes as a hobby, so I am always interested in how long it takes from Fruit Set to Ripeness. My general rule of thumb is about 25 to 30 days for small and cherry tomatoes and 45 to 60 days for large tomatoes, BUT, it varies based on a lot of factors such as variety, temperature, sun exposure, rain/cloudiness, size of the plant and how many tomatoes the plant is producing. Some of the 'early' varieties, such as Early Wonder or 4th of July are pretty surprising sometimes. They can produce fruit quite fast, though it isn't large. There are also those varieties such as Oregon Spring and Polar Set that can set fruit even at low temperatures (without being fertilized) and sometimes will produce earlier because they set fruit earlier (though I have never been impressed with the flavor of varieties like that). If you figure that you plant a small cherry tomato and a large late tomato, such as Italian Sweet or Stump of the World, and the plants grow at about the same rate, and set blossoms at about the same time, then why are the Cherry tomatoes often ripening by late June or early July and the Late Season tomatoes don't produce until mid August? (I'm talking about growth and fruit set under GOOD conditions here in Salt Lake City, Zone 6.) They have ALL been growing and setting fruit at about the same rate, so the difference in dates to ripeness, in that case, are due to genetics and size.