These tips will help you encourage fruits to color up on the plant or after harvesting them.
So what happens when your developing tomato fruits stubbornly stay green and refuse to ripen?
Learn what may slow down ripening and how to help your tomatoes turn red.
Credit:Erica George Dines
How fast or slowly tomatoes ripen also depends on the key in of tomato.
Temperature
Usually,weather is the most likely reasonfor tomatoes not ripening on the plant.
The best temperature range for ripening green tomatoes is between 70 and 75 degrees.
Credit: Jay Wilde
Your tomatoes still ripen outside that range, but the process will be slower.
Too Much Nitrogen
Overfertilizing your tomatoes can be a reason for tomatoes not ripening.
To avoid this problem, once your plants start setting fruit, cut back on fertilizing.
Typically, youll only need to fertilizetomato plantstwo or three times during the season.
Hard as it may feel to do, remove about a fourth of the total number of fruits.
This will help your plant concentrate its finite energy and resources on ripening just the fruit thats left.
Acherry tomatogenerally takes fewer days to fully ripen than a huge heirloom fruit such as a Brandywine tomato.
It could be that a bit of patience is all thats needed.
Not all tomatoes turn bright red, yellow, or orange when ripe.
Tomatoes dont necessarily need sunlight to ripen.
Place them in a paper bag with an apple or a banana to speed the ripening process along.
If you are lucky, the tomatoes ripen on the vine as the plant dies.
Just be sure to remove as much soil from the roots as possible before bringing the plant inside.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, green tomatoes are fine to eat.
They dont taste like ripe red tomatoestheyre more tart and acidicbutgreen tomatoes are delicious friedin breadcrumbs or other coatings.
Tomato color is often a good indicator of ripeness, unless the variety stays green when ripe.
The most reliable way to tell if a tomato is fully ripe is the feel of the fruit.
A very firm tomato isnt ripe, but a very soft one is too ripe.
“Why Aren’t My Tomatoes Ripening?
“Cornell Cooperative Extension.
