I have a bunch of tomatoes in my garden that are just not ripening. Does anyone know if they will ripen faster or even at all if I pick them and sit them in a sunny location or should I just let them go and wait for them to ripen on the vine? Thanks.
My mom always picked them and let them sit out on the counter until ready to eat. The alternative is them getting too ripe on the vine or birds/insects pecking them to death before you can pick them.
Paper bag, sunny sill, or leave them be... lol done all of the above... and they all work... If you leave them on the vine keep a close eye on the weather... sun and heat ripens tomatoes fastest so if its getting chilly they may rot before ripening...
sounds like a good time to make green fried tomatoes yum yum!
Definately put them in a sunny window and they ripen right up.
Tomatoes will continue to ripen off the vine. Like others have posted, you could put them in a paper bag. Or you could sit them next to bananas or apples. It's the ethylene gas they produce that speeds up the ripening process. Just keep an eye on them because they can go from ripe to rotten pretty fast.
Put them in a paper bag in the dark for a couple of days - there is some chemical reaction that occurs to ripen them. I don't remember why, but you can probably google it.
If they're totally green, leave them on the vine, unless you're looking at a hard frost. If they're slightly orangeish, go ahead and pull them, as pretty much everywhere in the midwest, it seems to be cool this week. Wait, I just noticed you're in Iowa...you're perhap not as chilly as I am in northern MN. If you can leave them on the vine without them rotting or freezing, do. If either of those is a concern, pull them off. Last year, with such a chilly summer, we actually not only pulled the flowers, but even pruned back branches of our plant to have it put more energy into the fruit.
Unless you're looking at a frost advisory and maybe losing them, I'd leave them on the vine. Its been kind of chilly lately and tomatoes need that warm weather and sun to ripen. If you're looking at frost coming your way like we are pretty soon, you can pick them and put them in paper bags with an apple. Apples release a natural gas that causes fruit to ripen faster when in the same containers as it. Just watch them so they aren't overly ripe before they come out of the bags.
If you have decent weather I would hold out. Even if its cool right now you might get some nice warm weather soon and they'll ripen.. You might try giving the plants one last feed for the season and prune them a bit. Take off the suckers, flowers, and any branches that may be yellowing a bit. The less the plant needs to work at keeping those alive, the more energy it can focus on the current fruit.
i'd pick them now while they're still nice, firm, uneaten, unsplit, etc... most of my tomatoes from last year that i left on the vine until ripe got icky for one reason or another.
We let ours at least get a yellow/orange color before picking them, and then let them ripen in the house on a windowsill. Our experience has been that if they are still green, they don't ripen after we pick them.
Pull all the flowers off your plant so the plant will use all it's energy to ripen the tomatoes. Next year pull the flowers off in early August.
Best not to pick them until they start turning color, then you can either put them in a paper bag, or let them sit on a window sill or the counter.
