Tomatoes!!!

I have a glorious, fecund group of tomato plants with huge green ones on them. I read somewhere that to prompt the green ones to ripen, you must disturb the roots of your plants by either twisting them or shoving a spade in around them. Any truth to this?

Historically, my green tomatoes never ripen. These are the biggest, lushest plants I've ever had, though, so I want to actually have ripe tomatoes this year. I don't know what goes wrong. August generally cools down a bit where I am, and my neighbors all have black walnut trees. I'm wondering if that's the cause?

i've never heard of that! Are they getting enough sun?

I've never heard that you can prompt green tomatoes to ripen by abusing the plants. Mine ripen just fine without - time and sun usually do the job.

Where are you located? I'm zone 3a, latitude 53N (Edmonton, Alberta) which is a pretty short season area, but I plant as early as I can (usually early May although I have to provide some frost protection) and I usually have ripe tomatoes in August. This year I've been getting ripe cherry tomatoes (var. Sunsugar) for a couple of weeks now. The bigger tomatoes are still very green.

Not sure about the black walnuts affecting them - I thought they just killed everything within a certain range. I have no experience with them - there aren't any near me.

Maybe you can counteract the coolness in August by putting plastic over the plants to make a sort of greenhouse? Just keep them well watered so they don't bake. You should also choose varieties that have a shorter season - Early Girl and the like.

I think twisting the roots is for cabbages (to stunt their growth and therefore stop them from cracking). I've never heard of it for tomatoes. As #3 says, black walnuts would just kill the plants, not stop them from ripening.

I'm in zone 4a, so I'm warmer than #3, but I do get lots of ripened tomatoes in August. (I just ate my first two days ago, but I have lots of green ones waiting to go.) You can just wait, and they should start ripening very soon.

Or, to get them to ripen faster, you can do some radical pruning. I've never done it myself, but here are two blog posts from a great tomato grower that describes what he does.

http://dirtsunrainredux.blogspot.com/2007/07/pinching-back-against-ticking-clock...

http://dirtsunrainredux.blogspot.com/2007/07/two-more-tomato-tricks.html

Actually, I do prune, just not as much as the guy with the blog I referenced. Pruning forces the plant to put more energy toward fruits rather than leaves.

Make sure you've pruned out all leaves between the ground the the first clusters of tomatoes. Also, pinch out all the suckers - the little shoots that grow in the Y of the main "trunk" and the "branches." The more suckers you have, the less energy goes to ripening fruit. It seems counterintuitive, but the more stems and branches on a tomato plant, the fewer fruits there are.

I may have to try that!

Hi Windy
Tomatoes need sun -- lots of it. Also hot weather. If my tomatoes are taking their time about turning to red from green, I will pick the tomatoes that are starting to show a bit of pink & set them on top of the picnic table where they will be in full sun. My problem with this is that I have to bring them in the house at night because we're out in the country & there's lots of critters around that like to sample ripening tomatoes. I have been picking & eating tomatoes for a week now, zone 5, northern OH, but they were picked & set in the sun & house for fast & early ripening.

Re: the pruning. I understood that to mean pruning lower branches and side shoots before flowering. Does it also hold after large fruit have set?

My tomatoes are in full sun, the hottest spot in my yard. I'll give them a couple more weeks before deciding they're not ripening, and then I'll try picking.

I tried one year to grow them in containers because my neighbor thought the black walnuts were hampering the ripening. I found out two things: You have to keep the roots cool, or the fruit will be bitter and the fruits did reliably ripen. These were cherry tomatoes. I discovered the cool roots thing because I had used an old styrofoam cooler for one of my containers, and even though the plants were the same variety and they were all grouped next to each other, the plants in the cooler were sweeter than the plants in either the wooden box or the black plastic planter.

I'm not sure about Black Walnuts killing everything, because grass grows right up to their trunks, and my neighbors all have flowers in their yards and flowering shrubs.

>8 Windy: Yes, the pruning holds true after fruit has set. Take a look at the links I posted and you'll see that he's trying to get fruit to ripen now.

As for the Black Walnuts, they don't kill everything, but some plants are much more susceptible than others. Tomatoes (and peppers) are notorious for being killed by being planted anywhere in the root system of the tree. But if that was the problem, your plants would be dead, not luscious and green.

That's interesting about the cool roots. I have some self-watering containers, and it would be interesting to try to cool those down the next time I plant tomatoes in them.

I pruned today and cut off a lot of wasted foliage, I'm sure that must be good for the plants and the fruits! and I found one lil mater turning pink! yay! It won't be long now!

Hi Talbin - I did read your links, but I notice this is new for him and he doesn't have experience to relate, just like me.

While I understand about too many leaves and stems sapping the energy of the plant, I also wonder if wounding the plant saps energy? Or does the wounding signal to the plant that it must hurry and ripen the fruit before it dies?

Avoid chopping the plant off in the middle of the stem find a nodule or a joining and snip it there, thats my advice

I don't think it's so much about "wounding" the plant. If you think about it, pruning happens all the time, and for different reasons. I think that the pruning means there is less plant material to send energy to, so more energy goes to what remains of the plant.

Like pollysmith said, don't chop off the middle of a stem - find the side shoots that look spindly or like they're just getting started. Maybe take out 1/4-1/3 of the leaves. As I said originally, I don't do all of these things, but I had remembered blogs where other people said they do. I can't vouch for the success (or failure) of any of them!

Here's another link, which I was actually looking for the first time around: This is more specific.

http://inmykitchengarden.blogspot.com/2006/08/whats-growin-on-8506.html

I also trim my plants back, but this year the plants seem especially lush, but the fruit is taking it's sweet time to ripen.
I did have someone tell me not to fertilize your tomato plants until they start to set fruit. That way you don't end up with all plant. I always fertilize when I set the plants out, but next year I am going to try this method.

This year, I fertilized when I set the plants out. A teeny, tiny bit of MiracleGro (I prefer to be organic, but I had some in the house and wanted to use it up) in a gallon jug with a hole poked in it at the bottom. When the MiracleGro was gone, I used up a partial bottle of houseplant foot. The fortified water leaked onto the roots all day. When the plants flowered, I stopped the fertilizer and just let the rain take care of them. We had a lot of rain at that time, too. Now, I have the strongest plants I've ever had with the biggest tomatoes I've ever seen. They are knocking over the tomato cages! The stems are as thick as two fingers!

Also, when I had tiny little fruits, I poked a calcium tablet into the soil next to the roots to prevent blossom end rot. I used to lose all my tomatoes to blossom end rot in my early days of gardening. I'm examining these fruits every morning to see if they might be changing shade just a little bit. These are Golden Delight, a yellow tomato, so I hope it's just a short while before they show some yellow.

I'm nuts about the tomatoes. My first year of gardening, 12 years ago, I grew them from seed in my basement under grow lights. I set out healthy, strong, large plants after the last frost date into prepared beds amended with dried cow manure and mushroom compost. The blackbirds immediately began picking them apart! I had never seen birds do that before or since! I was devastated!. My husband had to go outside and shoo them off for me, I felt so upset.

In the years after that, I grew Roma tomatoes on sprawling vines. They bore heavily and ripened reliably. I made my own sauce all summer, which was delicious. As I had more kids and a job, I ran out of time to make sauce, so I decided to concentrate on good tasting fresh eating tomatoes. This is where I ran into my ripening problem. I picked seeds from what were indicated to be short season tomatoes, or I bought plants one year that already had flowers on them. The container experiment last year produced ripe fruit, but few of them. My hopes are exceedingly high this year.

Sorry for the long boring soul baring.

Hi Windy
I've heard that adding fertilizer to Tomatoes & peppers before they set blossoms is not good. When I set the plants out, I put a shovel of cow manure in the hole & then no more fertilizer until blossom time & then I sprinkle a store brand of Veg. fertilizer around the plants.
When I was young & all 6 kids were home I started my plants from seed, flats first, then pots in window sills. In those days I canned hunderds of qtss of canned, salsa, & juice. But no more. I live alone & my son & I share a little garden, plants from aanother son w/bigger garden.
BTW. I have heard bad things about Miracle Gro on garden plants. It has hormones that force the plant into un=natural branching & flowering which is O.K. for display, but it wears the plants out & they don't last as long. I've never used it as I prefer organic -- compost pile & stuff cleaned out from chicken house when we had chickens.
Gee, I'm making myself homesick lol.
Good luck with your tomatoes. Nothing beats the taste of fresh-picked tomatoes.

TWO tomatoes now ripening! I'm so relieved!

Many ripe tomatoes on my dinner table. So nice! Excessive rain has cracked them, and I'm getting some kind of flaw to the skin which I'm blaming on this little fruitfly like things flying around the plants.

But they're delicious!

Windy: I'm so happy to see that you finally have tomatoes this year. Make sure to keep track of whatever you're doing so you can replicate it next year.

This year has been a great year for tomatoes for me, too. They started out slow - my first ripe tomato was about two weeks later than average - but my plants are lush, relatively disease-free, and full of fruit.

Tonight's menu will include a tomato bread salad. After three nights in a row of just sliced tomatoes, it will be a nice change. ;)

Tomato bread salad? Please share the recipe. I'm harvesting a bumper crop too!

Favorite summer supper( or lunch)
Bacon Tomato sandwiches with corn on the cob. Fresh from the garden (except for the bacon. & bread)

#21 - why not the bread? It's easy to make (even easier with a breadmaker) smells delicious and tastes better too!

(well okay I suppose it would be fresh from the garden and kitchen which doesn't sound quite as good)

Tomato bread salad, aka panzanella . . . .

All to taste. I'm sure you can look up a recipe online, but I just do it with the amounts I have on hand. You can also add other vegetables and cheeses - it's a good way to use up miscellaneous stuff you have on hand.

3-4 c cubed crusty bread - stale bread works well
1 lb (or more) cubed tomatoes
1/2 red onion, chopped or in thin slices (optional)
Grated Parmigiano or Romano cheese, to taste
Red wine vinegar - maybe 2 tbsp to 1/4 cup
Olive oil - maybe 3 tbsp to 1/4 cup
Salt & Pepper, to taste
1/4 cup chopped or torn basil

Whisk together the vinegar, oil, salt & pepper in a large bowl. Do this to taste - you may want less dressing, you may want more. Add bread, tomatoes, red onion and cheese. I also add any tomato juice that accumulated when chopping the tomatoes. Toss to coat well. Let stand 1 hour at room temperature (or not - just give the bread enough time to soak up the dressing). Or, if you feel more comfortable, put it in the refrigerator, but I would let it warm up a bit before serving. Just before serving, toss in the basil.

You may need to adjust the amount of vinegar and oil depending on how much bread there is. Some people put the bread cubes in water briefly then press out the water before adding the bread to the dressing - this is to help the bread absorb the dressing. I don't personally like it that "wet" so I don't do it.

You can also toast the bread cubes - either tossed with olive oil or not - or use big store-bought croutons.

Optional Ingredients - I wouldn't use them all at one time!
Cubed cucumber
Cubed provolone or fresh mozzarella cheese
Sliced hard boiled eggs
Chopped red pepper
1-2 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2-3 tbsp capers
1/4 cup good olives, chopped
1-2 tsp garlic
1-2 tsp Dijon mustard whisked into the dressing
1-2 tbsp anchovy paste or chopped anchovies
Substitute fresh lemon juice for the red wine vinegar
Substitute balsamic vinegar for the red wine vinegar

We are in the worst drought in living memory, with day after day of temps above 100 F and my toms are extremely distressed about it.

Where are you Varielle? I live on Long Island NY. We are in the 3rd day of a nor'easter (nor'easters are by definition or tradition 3 days - usually) with wind and damaging rain. I am currently on a barrier beach off Long Island and am going back to my tomatos at home tomorrow. I expect crushed plants and green tomatos. I wish for you rain - I would prefer some sun, thank you very much!

We are in North Carolina, where the grass is crunchy, the leaves are brown, the water restrictions have started and the birds are sitting on my window sill looking wistfully at the kitchen sink. We will take all of the rain you can send us.

>23 Talbin: Talbin
Thanks for the recipe. It's easy enough and sounds delicious.

I hope some of our rain swoops down your way, Varielle.

My tomatoes are getting ruined by rain! They are cracked, fruit flies are at them, they are rotting on one side! I can't eat them fast enough, so I'm picking them unripe and putting them in a windowsill to save them from all this rain!

I had forgotten about tomato bread salad, I'm going to do that tonight. I've been making Serbian salad:

Quarter your tomatoes into a bowl.
Add thin sliced purple onion
Add olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.
Allow to marinate at least an hour.
Add feta cheese just before serving.

Hey, florahista, I live on a barrier island off Long Island NY. My tomatoes are doing well, however.

The recipes are great. What I need now is a surefire way to keep the fruitflies out of the kitchen. Any ideas?

CEP, my tomatoes in Huntington are in semi-shade. My yard is mostly canopied with oak trees. Cherry tomatoes are doing well and my big boys are beginning to ripen finally. We do have sun but that area is mostly deck. Maybe container gardening for vegies is the way to go.
I am currently on Fire Island until Tuesday - then back to reality (except for weekends). No vegies now but we do grow successful lettuce in the spring. Fall is too short - they kick us out mid-Oct.
How do you keep the deer away? Fencing?

florahistora, No deer but some squirrels to chase now and then. I'm in Long Beach. Since I cut down a 2+ story tall pine in my yard I've had better growing space.

I stick with tomatoes in the garden as the reward is much happier for me. I've been picking all varieties for a couple of weeks now; Fourth of July and Early Girl for longer. Happiest new tomato is Soldaki, a huge Polish heirloom. One came in close to two pounds! Sweet and juicy. The green zebras and Cherokee purple are done. The yellow acid-free have one more harvest in them. The Big Boy and Better Boy are still giving fruit.

Happy Labor Day!