I want to eat them NOW

[MikeB]

If I put banana skins around the base of the plant will they redden quicker?, This seems to work at the end of the year when we have a load of green tomatoes that need ripening.

[MikeB]

[tim]

Nice! What are they? Variety!!

Bananas skins? Isn't it just the potassium in them & wouldn't a standard fertiliser do just as well?

And how do I find 80 banana skins??

[amphibian]

Wow, mine are only marble size.

[Multiveg]

Heard/read somewhere that you could put a banana skin in where you plant your tomato.

[DenBee]

Bananas give off ethylene gas, which can be used to bring on the ripening of other fruit.  It's also why should keep your bananas separate from fruit in your fruit bowl, because it can make them over-ripe.  :)

(I read it somewhere  ;) )

[redimp]

Nice! What are they? Variety!!

Bananas skins? Isn't it just the potassium in them & wouldn't a standard fertiliser do just as well?

And how do I find 80 banana skins??

Not IMHO as bananas aren't an agro-chemical concoction.  I threw banana skins in some of my potato trenches - courtesy of the fruit for infants scheme, and am going to put the next lot round the stems of fruiting plants.

[tim]

Fair Trade bananas of course??

[MikeB]

Isn't it just the potassium in them & wouldn't a standard fertiliser do just as well?

I have been fertilising them but I wish they would turn red :D :D

The variety is cobra -

http://www.tomatogrowers.com/midseason.htm

[MikeB]

am going to put the next lot round the stems of fruiting plants.

So do you think it could work?

[redimp]

Unfortunately not Tim.  As you know, this government is seriously lacking in the principle department so the poor kids have to eat Chiquita Bananas.  At home we buy Windward's finest.

[tim]

Doubt it, Mike - if we're talking about ethylene, the gasses would be too dissipated to have effect??  And your fertiliser will have done more than any skin??

Best cure is Patience!  You're well ahead of most?

Off to water mine now.

[glow777]

Wouldn't bananas skins attract slugs. OK they wouldn't bother large toms but you may want to plant something else in the g/h after the toms have reddened.

ps mine are still flowers

[mc55]

Mike, maybe you could run an experiment with a couple - results should be just in time for those of us whose toms have just started to set  :D

[MikeB]

Skins around two of my plants mc55, will let you know.

[mc55]

;D ;D ;D

[Hyacinth]

When my Super Marmande starts fruiting I take the largest off and ripen in a box between newspaper in the dark.

[MikeB]

When my Super Marmande starts fruiting I take the largest off and ripen in a box between newspaper in the dark.

I remember doing that as a kid, wrapping green tomatoes in newspaper at the end of the season to help them ripen quicker, I believe we then placed them in an old biscuit tin which was then put in the bottom of the junk cupboard.

[Hyacinth]

Under the bed in my place, Mike :)

[tim]

With Her life's savings??

[MikeB]

Mike, maybe you could run an experiment with a couple - results should be just in time for those of us whose toms have just started to set  :D

Didn't work, with two days of hot weather the skins just totally dried out, back to the drawing board. :D :D