Best way to finish ripening tomatoes?

14 years ago

I rescued my cherry tomatoes this afternoon so they won't freeze tonight. I picked some that aren't ripe yet. Any tips on getting them to ripen? I left them on the stems.

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Comments (9)

sprouts_honor
14 years ago
Put them in a small paper bag (with a banana or apple if possible). Ethylene gas, also called ripening hormone, is produced by fruits and may help them ripen. My cherry tomatoes usually crack before they ripen off the vine.
vieja_gw
14 years ago
We haven't had a freeze here ... yet (!) but it may come this week according to the weather reports. I have a huge tomato plant full of big green tomatoes ... can I pull the whole plant & string it in the shed & will the tomatoes tipen that way or should I pull the tomatoes from the plant, wrap them in paper & let them ripen that way ... OR just lose the tomatoes? The ones that have ripened lately don't have the good flavor of the earlier season ones .. does the slower ripenind affect the flavor?
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I know this goes against what you are suppose to do, but I've been putting them in my greenhouse. They are in direct sunlight and it gets around 90 degrees in there. There's a roof vent that kicks on when the temp gets up there and it seems to keep it from getting real hot. Usually takes 2 -3 days and they are ripe enough to process. I always pick mine when they start turning orange or else the bugs get most of them. The paste type I just put in boxes - this is what they look like when I pick them And this is 2 -3 days later. Paste type are quite firm so they don't get squished like the bigger ones would. In each batch, I usually end up with a handful of really green ones (picking mistakes) but they all ripen up nicely. I'm hoping the weather holds a few more weeks - while the paste type are about done, the big eating ones are just getting started. I'm in south central SD. Cathy
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If you will check out the link below and scroll down to the posts with the blue borders you'll find several recent discussions on 'how-to ripen...' tomatoes. Several different approaches are discussed. Personally I wouldn't be in a hurry to do anything as the plants will continue to do fine and the fruit will continue to ripen until a frost kills them. Cooler temps may slow ripening a bit but it doesn't stop it. If you want, try some both ways - some left on the vine and some off the vine as discussed - and see which works best for you. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: How to ripen discussions
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digdirt2: Yes, have numerous times as has Carolyn, Mule and several others have both here and on Tomatoville (as you know gb) as it has also been discussed ad infinitem on that forum. And yet, nobody has actually provided a reference. And people keep calling it a "membrane" that "seals", even though an abscission zone is not a membrane and does not seal in tomato fruit. <The original research papers were out of Kansas State University AG research station I recall and have been referenced in hundreds of articles over the years. > And yet, nobody here or at tville has ever managed to point to an actual reference in any of these hundreds of articles. I find this odd. <The research is based on the changing chemical nature of the vasculature structure between the pedicle and the abscission zone of the fruit as they ripen.> I'm going to guess that you haven't actually read the article. I actually had a friend with access look up this article for me a year or two ago, and I read it. And the article is about how, in maturing tomato fruit, the xylem (water transport vasculature) decreases and all transport of wet and dry matter into a maturing tomato fruit is taken over by the phloem (dry matter transport vasculature). It says nothing about a stop to transport of dry matter into a tomato. It certainly says nothing to support the claim that ONLY water enters a tomato from color break until it's picked and its implications actually debunk that idea. <Many scientific studies: Tomato fruit abscission studies> Did you read your search results? They have nothing to do with the question at hand and most of them are about the no-joint gene variation in which an abscission zone never forms at all (lime green salad is a variety like this, for example). <Given all that research is commonly accepted then I don't understand why it is so hard to accept the same studies done on tomato fruit. But some are determined to not accept it. That is their choice but it doesn't make the research any less valid.> Commonly accepted by whom? The people I see claiming the "sealed membrane" are all either from tville or quoting people from tville. Can you point to an independent, scientific source that says this? Because I've looked a lot, and I can't find one. The accusation that people are only believing what they want to believe can be leveled in both directions. And when you look at the actual science, it doesn't back up the "sealed membrane" camp. The fact is, tomatoes continue to get both water and dry matter and volatile compounds from the plant up until at least the point of becoming table ripe. This is not up for debate--it has been shown. Whether most human beings can detect these changes in a fruit ripened to table ripe on the vine vs. in a fruit that was picked early and ripened off the vine is, as I've always said, an individual matter, and whether the average human cares enough about subtle differences is yet another individual matter. But the "sealed membrane" claim so far looks to be folklore, not science.
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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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rafed
14 years ago
Vieja,

Allow me to swing from the Fig forum for a minute or two.

The Sun is everything when it comes to gardening.
However this time of year we must rely on other sources to ripen them.

Ever wonder how the tomatoes at the market are always equal in size? once they reach a certain size the plant/vine is cut at ground level and left there to ripen.
And that beautiful red color is that trick light working just above your head.
Where I'm getting at is that they don't need to be physically on a live plant to ripen.

You can try to pull them off the vine and place them inside by the window and will turn in a matter of days.

Or, Have you ever ( depending on the size )tried pickeling some green tomatoes?

I'm no expert and am far away from being one.
I am a back yard gardener like most of the forum memebers but my father and I usually grow five or six different tomatoes every year, Maybe more.

True, They will not taste nowhere near as good as vine ripened but this time of year consider your self lucky to still have tomatoes in your garden.

What ever you do please don't throw them away. It will be a total waste of time and effort.
You can find 100 ways to make use out of them, Like salsa.

Good luck

Rafed
Sterling Heights, Mi
clccharles
14 years ago
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.
vieja_gw
14 years ago
clccharles: we also grow mostly indeterminate tomatoes from seed & they too grow way over the tops of the 5 ft. reinforcement wire cages & the flop back down. We notice the fruit tends to ripen from the shadier inside of the plant first & the green ones on the sunnier outside of the plants later but we seem to feel the earlier in the season ripened ones taste better than the ones (on the same plant) that have ripened towards the end of the season. As it got down to 27 here last night & the first freeze, we had just earlier pulled the big plants up by the roots & hung them in the garage. Do these need sun to ripen properly now? Bushels of tree leaves now dug into the garden for winter .. & found many more baking-size potatoes I have dug up that have grown from the peelings in the kitchen waste I have dug in the soil all year... a nice extra surprize to the end of the gardening season!! :)

Thanks everyone for your help!
justaguy2
14 years ago
They will ripen off the vine as noted. Sometimes the flavor isn't as good. There are many things that contribute to overall flavor and these come from the plant. Ripening a green tomato with ethylene (from other fruits) works pretty well, but can't produce the same complex flavor.

Ripening fully developed (but not ripe) fruits generally produces a better tasting tomato than trying to ripen the juveniles.
clccharles
14 years ago
justaguy think you're right on the juveniles, they last a lot longer in storage, and we ususally eat the last wee one's about the 1st of Febuary. Even then we miss them so, because I just can't eat store tomatoes. Sister in law gave me a hint the other day. Said if you leave the stem on they take longer to ripen. Maybe that's why people pull the whole plant, and take them inside? Never know where one will get a tidbit of good information. Anyone know if that's the reason for pulling the whole plant?
larryw
14 years ago
clccharles,

I'd appreciate the quantity formula on that spray mix and, also, your experience with blights and anthracnose.

If you can find a supply of Potassium bicarbonate at a reasonable price it will do a bit better for you on desease control and has the added benefit of potassium being a primary nutrient. What benefits do you ascribe to the skim milk and oils?
geeboss
14 years ago
Yep good ole potassium bicarbonate thanks Larry for the reminder thought I'd forgotten to get some for next season.

George

Here is a link that might be useful: Potassium bicarbonate

Best way to finish ripening tomatoes?

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sprouts_honor

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