Kitchen Garden Forum

I have loads of green tomatoes in greenhouse with no sign of turn red, when should I expect them to start turn red and is there anting I can do to speed them up.

Not sure you can really persuade them to get on with it. If you have enough plants and aren't too bothered about total yield you can take the tops out at 4 or 5 trusses which is supposed to help. I always let mine carry on regardless and eventually create a great tangle at the top of the greenhouse or tunnel. I sometimes think it is a good idea not to take the first ones off as soon as they turn as ripe fruit appears to encourage others to ripen, of course it might be that they were just ready to turn anyway!
While we are on tomatoes. In another post I asked if anyone was growing Indigo Blue Berries because mine is a pain. Not the easiest thing to photograph but this is a leaf I took off this morning, it was attached at the right of the photograph, showing the bizarre side shoots and even flowers that are coming up along the leaf.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FULovxOazPc
Have a look and a listen to this

Apparently putting bananas under the plants encourages them to ripen early due to the ethylene they give off. I have tried it but it was for ripening the last ones & it did seem to work, but could have been other factors like a wee warm spell. I still do it though.

I too have heard about the banana skins but it said to drape the banana skins onto the branches close to the tomatoes. None of my tomatoes turned red last year but it might be because I sowed the seeds too late. I am going to give the banana skins a try this year.
Jan

The tomatoes I grow these days have to be blight resistant I won’t grow anything else this year I put two varieties in my tunnel san Marzano the other I can’t remember for the life of me I have got the name down the plot ,the first one is a plumb type I’ve now found out it’s now not advertised as blight resistant the second is supposed to grow big tomatoes up to a pound in weight which are very sweet and can be used in salads as well as good for cooking some I’ve got growing are as wide as a three inch plant pot none are anything like ripe ,I’ve got my usual tumbling Tom growing in hanging baskets outside I’ve ten plants growing really well with loads of tomatoes and flowers on them some how I don’t think my two daughters and myself will be going short of tomatoes this summer

Just remembered they are Burlesque

Have 2 toms starting to turn red so hopefully the rest will follow.

I usually let them do there own thing when the reach the roof but stared to cut the tops off this year as have an abundance of trusses.

my tumbling toms have a couple on the turn, all the others are still green. One GD plant in the blow away self trimmed the top off in the storm over the weekend!

Mine have just coloured finally. They didn't have the banana under them but I took some overripe bananas down for the roses & forgot to put them under the bushes so maybe their stay in the tunnel for 36hrs or so prompted them?

Not sure that you can hurry up the ripening of tomatoes, especially if they're grown outdoors but if you're impatient to start picking your own as soon as possible I'd recommend growing a few tumbling varieties.(I grow Tumbling Tom, red and yellow).
I've always found that the fruits mature and start to ripen ahead of the upright determinate plants, which is also helpful if it turns out to be a bad year for blight.
We're already picking our ripe tumblers. The others are showing no signs of ripening yet (all outdoors).

All my toms are under glass, poor returns from plants outside up here, Minibell were the first to ripen, now Black Cherry and Bourghese are ready, these are smallish varieties. Main crops are just beginning to ripen and the beef steaks are still growing and the Breakfast are usually last. I have 9 varieties this year and am already buying seed for next year......................impatient.........................me?

You make me smile, Burnie….

My left over plants popped in a space outdoors are also just starting to colour. The plum is particularly heavy with fruit so I hope they ripen before we get late blight. I haven't had any warnings to date for any potato blight, but the wet weather later in the year is pretty much a given for late blight.