Jump to content

Gardeners - my tomatoes just won’t ripen


Ralphie

Recommended Posts

31 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

Bring them in on the vines.

Too late for most but I’ll do that for the few that are left. What is the benefit?

So now I remember, they need to be at least light green. They say dark green will never ripen, so those are for salsa verde.  I have liked making that before.   

I came across the old “put them in a paper bag with a banana” so that the ethylene given off by the banana ripens them. But how the hell do they get the ethylene they need to ripen outside?  I am confused! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

33 minutes ago, Philander Seabury said:

Too late for most but I’ll do that for the few that are left. What is the benefit?

 

I heard it helps for flavor and ripening. 

Or just stack on a counter and let them ripen at room temp.

Tomatoes are tough here too.  You have to buy early girls or have a greenhouse system

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

It is the cold nights.  Anything below 50, tomatoes hate it.

Yeah, I guess there have been a few of those.  Wow, now we are the Organic Gardening Forum. :D Kazoo should be along any minute to push Monsanto.

So maybe that is why you leave the vines on - to produce ethylene.  But I guess the tomatoes themselves must be able to do it on their own since they do eventually ripen,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, dennis said:

Mine did the same thing @Philander Seabury I shocked them. Pull of any flowers and stop watering them. They were ripe within about a week.

Thanks, dennis!  I'll give the pulling the blossoms off a try, but I haven;t had to water all fall with all our rainfall.  And it looks like we have at least a week of frost-free weather on tap.

So how did the garden do this year for you other than that?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Philander Seabury said:

It is odd because the weather has been gorgeous for the most part.  A few cool days, but mostly 60s and 70s.

Ahh, here we go on the ethylene production.  But I'll need Dr Mickin or sheepherder to translate the scientific language into Englich.

https://academic.oup.com/jxb/article/53/377/2039/497226

 

Maybe if you soak them in anti-freeze? Isn’t it made of ethylene glycol?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, Philander Seabury said:

Thanks, dennis!  I'll give the pulling the blossoms off a try, but I haven;t had to water all fall with all our rainfall.  And it looks like we have at least a week of frost-free weather on tap.

So how did the garden do this year for you other than that?

Garden was pretty good. The deer ate my beans and broccoli, but my tomatoes, beets, radishes, lettuce, chard, and spinach did well.

  • Awesome 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, sheep_herder said:

We've done this along with hanging plants from the ceiling in a root cellar. Both methods worked, but the newspaper route was less messy.

One year she hung the vines in the garage. But then ended up taking off the tomatoes and wrapping them anyway. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...