Green tomatoes will ripe by themselves.

Unfortunately, the first frosts sometimes hit already in September, which is rather early and you may not have enough time to harvest all your tomatoes so, you should harvest as many before that. Including the green ones because they still have a chance to ripen sufficiently. It would be a shame not to try and throw them into a composter! In this article will shall tell you how to harvest green tomatoes and let them ripe…

Pluck them off or cut them?

While red tomatoes and those that are reddish can be plucked from the plant with the stem, because that would make them last longer, do not harvest green tomatoes like that. Leave them on the plant as long as possible. When there are no more red or reddish fruits, pull the whole plant together with the root out of the soil and simply hang it in a warmer room where they will ripen.

Photo: Pixabay

Can you accelerate the ripening process?

Yes, you can. Place tomatoes in close proximity to apples or bananas and you will significantly speed up the ripening process. Apples and bananas contain ethylene, which promotes ripening. But place the “reddish” tomatoes in a box lined with newspaper or directly on a windowsill. Light is good, but not that important. So, if you don’t have a suitable room, you can leave them at any place that is not cold. Do not store tomatoes at a temperature lower than ten degrees. That goes for ripe tomatoes too. Yes, they will last a week in the fridge, but they don’t retain much flavour. Store ripe tomatoes at temperatures around 15 °C.

Photo: Radek Štěpán

Check often

Inspect tomatoes often but touch them as little as possible. Let your eyes do the checking… touching can cause damage to tomatoes. Discard any fruit that shows signs of disease or mould (you may put those aside and use them if you can as soon as possible). Fungal diseases can spread quickly and infect all your tomatoes.

Composting

Green tomato bushes that do not have any fruit should be composted. Plants are generally large and quite tough and strong so, you may want to chop them into smaller pieces before mixing them with the compost.

Preview photo: Pixabay