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Ripening at the same time?

Posted: Sat May 11, 2019 12:44 pm
by Elmigo
What is the missing puzzle piece I'm looking for? I see so many gardens where all apples are ripening at about the same time! When I'm harvesting, I usually get a couple of red strawberries each day, while the others are still green. This year, for the first time in my short history, I can see the strawberries ripening at about the same time, all at once! Or well, they flowered at exactly the same time and the fruits are equal sizes. This never happens to my tomatoes but the store sells cherry tomatoes with the branch still on it. Each branch has exactly 10 tomatoes and each of them is perfectly red. Are they artificially modified? I hope not.

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Re: Ripening at the same time?

Posted: Sat May 11, 2019 2:14 pm
by Primrose
It,s Sod's Law Elmigo . Either everything ripens at one and you have more than you can eat or not enough ripens at any one time to give you enough for a meal! That,s the joy of gardening as it always entices you back next year to see if you can make a better job of beating nature!

Re: Ripening at the same time?

Posted: Sat May 11, 2019 2:43 pm
by Elmigo
Beating nature? Good luck...
Beating my last years' self? Definitely!

Re: Ripening at the same time?

Posted: Sat May 11, 2019 7:56 pm
by peter
Modern vegetable varieties bred for commercial use tend to be ripe at the same some or have a tight period of ripening.
More efficient to clear the field, or block in the field - sowing or planting a swathe a week.

Re: Ripening at the same time?

Posted: Sat May 11, 2019 8:59 pm
by Westi
Generally most growers have room for lots of strawberries so they are able to get a harvest from many plants but each individual plant will not ripen all at once. A bit like tomatoes, but apples may be ripe but will still hang on the tree perfectly intact so you can harvest all at once, whereas the softer veg & fruit do not. Strawberries grow well in hanging baskets & towers so take less space but you get more plants. I saw something on the net about growing them in a hanging plastic shoe rack that goes over the back of a door normally. It could work but only if you could find one that was not plastic as that would just perish - have a search, you've got that wall begging for something!

Re: Ripening at the same time?

Posted: Sat May 11, 2019 10:49 pm
by Elmigo
Perhaps this wall is begging for strawberries, small herbs? There's always a tiny bit of space left for more of those! I may need some more strawberries to harvest more at once or buy commercial varieties that are made for it. Can't make a good strawberry recipe when I get 3 ripe ones a day. You're right, the tomatoes never ripen at the same time. I really wonder how they grow the varieties of cherry tomatoes I see in the store. They are being harvested with the branch still on it and all tomatoes are perfectly red, each branch has exactly 10 tomatoes on it, not one more or less. Hope it's nothing artificial, they taste great too.

Re: Ripening at the same time?

Posted: Mon May 13, 2019 11:56 am
by tigerburnie
I grow different varieties of Strawberries for a variation in cropping time and flavor, some French perpetual ones in pots in the greenhouse for early and late crops and some outside for the bulk of summer, including some alpine ones which I can highly recommend.