Tomato bounty: The end goal for anyone who grows tomatoes – a bountiful harvest. CANDACE GODWIN/Courtesy
Counter ripening: Tomatoes will ripen on the kitchen counter out of direct sunlight. For this method, pick tomatoes that show some coloring to their skin, like the two tomatoes on the right.
Immature Green Fruit: Avoid harvesting immature green tomatoes to ripen. These small fruits won’t ever ripen and are best put in the compost pile.
Mortgage Lifter Some Color: When ripening tomatoes off the vine, choose fruit that shows some coloring as these will ripen faster.
Zapotec Green: The chilly and then hot summer has caused an abundance of green tomatoes this year.
If your garden is anything like mine, there are plenty of green tomatoes hanging on the vine – perhaps more than usual for this time of year. It’s time to get these “greenies” ripened before that first frost hits.
Why are we seeing so many green tomatoes on the vine this year? It has to do with weather – no surprise, right? That cold, wet spring and late summer set our gardens back by about two weeks and caused late pollination and fruit set for many vegetable plants – especially tomatoes.
When it comes to pollination, tomatoes are very temperamental. For successful pollination, they require temperatures to be between 70 and 85 degrees. We saw temperatures well below that threshold into July, causing blossom drop and late pollination.
It also takes six to eight weeks from the time of pollination until the tomato fruit reaches its full maturity – meaning that the tomato fruit is fully developed, but not ripe. This is known as the “mature green” stage.
Delayed pollination due to our late start to summer is one cause for those green tomatoes – but there’s another reason too. In addition to an optimal temperature range for pollination, tomatoes have an optimum temperature range for ripening.
Ripening and color development in tomatoes is controlled by two factors: temperature and the naturally occurring hormone, ethylene.
The optimal temperature for ripening mature green tomatoes is between 68 and 77 degrees. The further the temperature moves in either direction from that optimum, the slower the process will be.
In addition, when temperatures are consistently over 85 degrees the production of lycopene and carotene, which are the pigments that give tomatoes their color, stops. This causes the fruit to remain in a mature green stage until conditions become more favorable.
This means that extended periods of excessive heat can significantly slow down or even stop the ripening process in tomatoes. Combine that with our chilly start to summer, and the end results are green tomatoes.
With cooler temperatures on the horizon, the ripening process should kick into gear. But you can also ripen tomatoes off the vine. Here’s some tips:
Oh tomatoes, how we love growing you, but we have once again confirmed that you are truly the prima donna of the garden.
Candace Godwin is a Certified Idaho Master Gardener. The University of Idaho Extension, Kootenai County Idaho Master Gardener program is located in the UI Research Park, 958 S. Lochsa St., in Post Falls. Learn more about us at https://www.uidaho.edu/extension/county/kootenai/garden or on Facebook. Visit us in person, email us at kootenaimg@uidaho.edu, or call us at (208) 292-2525. IMG services are free to the public.
Zapotec Green: The chilly and then hot summer has caused an abundance of green tomatoes this year.
Mortgage Lifter Some Color: When ripening tomatoes off the vine, choose fruit that shows some coloring as these will ripen faster.
Immature Green Fruit: Avoid harvesting immature green tomatoes to ripen. These small fruits won’t ever ripen and are best put in the compost pile.
Counter ripening: Tomatoes will ripen on the kitchen counter out of direct sunlight. For this method, pick tomatoes that show some coloring to their skin, like the two tomatoes on the right.
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