October 13, 2016
It seems to be that
time of year again when the tomato plants are loaded with green
tomatoes. Is there any way to hasten their ripening? As we progress
through October the first frost / freeze becomes ever so nearer.
There are some things one can do.
Probably the first
and most important thing is to stop watering, although Mother Nature
of late has had different ideas on this no water “thingy”. The
idea is to stress the plants and this will hasten their ripening. A
word of caution if you see the plants wilting you will need to water
but not very deeply. The plants still need water so that the tomatoes
can fully develop.
Trimming some of the
foliage so that the sun can more easily shine on the fruit helps
immensely. Not too heavily because the plants need foliage so that
the ripening tomatoes will develop their flavor.
Toward the end of
October be sure to keep an eye on the weather forecasts for arriving
cold fronts and potential frosts. I like to have covers available to
cover the plants so that they do not freeze. The covers do need to be
removed in the morning so that the sun can do its charm.
The longer you can
keep the green tomatoes on the vines more of the tomatoes will ripen.
Say you have just
had it with the cover game, don't just walk away from your green
toms. You can make green tomato chutney or if the the toms are of
size maybe fried green tomatoes.
What I like to do is
to harvest all of the tomatoes, then in a “cooler” room spread
them out on newspaper so that they can ripen slowly. As you spread
them out you will notice glossy skinned toms and dull skin toms, for
me the glossy ones are more likely to ripen. Considering the time of
year, WE are going into a home grown tomato void, so I would keep
them all.
There is another way
to store your green tomatoes it does not curry much favor with me
because all of the toms are wrapped in paper and stored in a box to
ripen. To see which ones have ripened but more likely to find which
one has gone bad, all of the toms then need to be unwrapped. For
something that is just a bit of heaven to eat they sure can be some
of the foulest smelling when they begin to rot. This is why I like to
lay them out on newspaper so that the nasty one can readily be
spotted but more so, so it can be easier to find the little ripened
delights.
Depending how cool
your room is, the ripening may last a month or two. Savor while you
can.
Good luck and happy
gardening!!! Questions?
I can be contacted at markdirtfarmer@gmail.com.
Or more garden notes at redwagonfarm.blogsot.com
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