Allotments 4 All

Tomatoes taking a long time to go red, so have picked some that are just turning orange and brought them inside to ripen.  We have had heavy rain recently, but sunny today, so am leaving half out and half in.  Has anyone else picked theirs yet.  Looked up a tomato paste recipe on this site and was surprised that it was a recipe I had put on years ago.  Certainly going a bit forgetful as I can't remember cooking it. Have got some at the allotment, some in the front garden and some in back garden, but only a few red ones, but the sun here today is good. 

We are in a similar position here in Yorkshire, with probably half in half out due to the colder spell this week.  I'm hoping that the higher temperature this weekend will bring things on a bit, but they are ripening, it's just dribs and drabs. 

I'm not averse to ripening them indoors in newspaper, but some are earmarked for seed saving so need to be on the bush. 

However, let's look on the bright side: no frost (yet!) and no rain, which would be a killer! 

I think this is the best outdoor tomato year so a while.- sorry if others have blight but even though the spring was cold once it warmed up my toms got going and I even ripened beefsteaks outside here in East sussex - just need a warm next couple of weeks to finish the job as earlier poster wished for too.

Best tomatoes I have ever grown (in pots, on sunny patio) ripening nicely and tasty, and first I've grown from seed - ridiculously easily, should have done it years ago. but it was a freebie mixed selection of seed, so I have to guess which are yellow and ripe and which are orange and not, and are those red and green ones ready? Will really go for it next year.

Amish paste, no joy on ripening, moved plants to greenhouse.

Rose de Berne, had 1 or 2 but moved the plants to the greenhouse now.

Latah, doing very well, been picking them since end of July.

Can no longer move in the greenhouse now 

This has been, for me, the best year for outdoor toms for years - maybe the best ever.  Pounds and pounds of top flavoured toms - 5 varieties grown and they have all done really well - Coeur de Boeuf have been exceptional, huge and full of flavour.  Sungold - fantastic amounts of fruit,  Amish Paste - brilliant for pasting and Black Krim are off the scale..

I expect my location (SE London) helps but I really do try hard with toms and get them going early in the little poly before moving them outside.

I still have loads to pick if they ripen in time but the blight has come to our site so we will see - Leaves are stripped off now and a quick spray of Bordeaux mix. It may be green tomato chutney again!

All my tomatoes - Sungold, Sungella, Harzfeuer, Tombola, Bangladeshi, Rio Fuego Nana and Beefsteak have done well. Loads of puree and chutney made, frozen some whole and still some ripening on window sills. Have composted all the tomato plants now - such luck to NOT get blight this year. I have to get my garden tidied up soon as I'm off to Canada to visit my sister in October. I have someone coming in November to remove my badly fire-blighted Comice pear tree and spread manure on the raised beds for me - jobs I am no longer capable of doing myself. When I come home it will be time for me to sort my seed box and start making lists for next year. This lovely summer has just flown by -  still enjoying 20C+ today 

Tricia

i had huge success in ripening mine by putting them in brown paper bag and putting a banana in with them. i didnt think it would actually work but it did

Quote from: celestial on October 06, 2013, 11:55:02
i had huge success in ripening mine by putting them in brown paper bag and putting a banana in with them. i didnt think it would actually work but it did

Ethylene is thought of as the aging hormone in plants. It also causes fruit to ripen.

Putting unripe fruit (like tomatoes) in  a bag with a ripe fruit (like a banana) - that's giving off ethylene gas - is the most efficient and effective way to ripen many fruits. Forget the nonsense of putting them on a windowcill in the sun, or the opposite extreme of putting them in a dark cupboard or drawer wrapped up in newspaper. It's ethylene that does the trick. Ethylene gas is used commercially to ripen tomatoes. In fact most imported fruit are green, hard & unripe (like tomatoes apples or bananas). They then get treated with ethylene gas in big airtight 'ripening sheds' , so that they appear on supermarket shelves as "just picked" perfectly ripe (although often tasteless).

You can't see or smell ethylene gas. Some fruit will naturally produce it as ripening begins - especially very ripe banannas. Apples and pears are also examples of fruit that produce ethylene with ripening. Ethylene is responsible for the changes in texture (softening), colour, and other processes involved in ripening. However fruits such as cherries and blueberries do not produce much ethylene and it doesn't influence their ripening that much when they're in contact with it.

This is the reason why one ripe fruit in a fruit bowl accelerates the ripening of other fruit (often something you don't want). However if you want your toms to ripen inside it's the exact thing you need - especially in a paper bag as the gas doesn't escape so easily.

Strange how 'old wives tales' and facts often get mixed up! Stick with science and not necessarily what your old gran said about how to ripen your toms!! Uunless she told you to get rid of the ripe bnana in the fruit bowl so that it dosn't spoil the nice fresh stuff you just put in there for her!

I have always for many many years just stripped off the foliage and hang the plants up in the shed and then picked the fruit as it ripened no bother.