Comments on: waiting, waiting (for a ripe tomato)

By: Daska

Daska — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 20:15:06 +0000

Hi again,
had to update you – as a first year gardener in Canada, I was nervous about leaving tomatoes on the vine in case we get frost (this being western Canada, I’m warned it can snow by Halloween!)so I stripped the vines resulting in about 12lb of green fruit of all sizes – from beefsteak giants to those the size of my little fingernail. Under my mother’s instruction, I laid them out flat on trays and – magic – within two days they’re starting to develop an orange hue!

By: Nancy

Nancy — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 20:25:45 +0000

I suppose they really are reliant on a lot of sustained heat, and it was a cooler than average summer all around here, wasn’t it? Now as for poor Amy- how much chutney would she have to make to use up 500 plants worth of green tomatoes?! Yikes!

By: margaret

margaret — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 19:19:44 +0000

@Nancy: I am slowly getting ripe ones now, but I missed the second half of July, when I normally start having fruit, and much of August, so I’ll never catch up. I think a combination of weeks and weeks of violent weather and really not sustained heat until quite late just rattled them. Amy Goldman, who commented above, lives not far from me, and my plants like hers suffered wet wet wet feet for weeks on end and cool-ish temps.

By: Nancy

Nancy — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 19:00:42 +0000

Margaret, I’m wondering about why your tomatoes didn’t ripen. My CT tomatoes (zone 5a in full day sun) are ripening pretty well. I wonder if it’s because I planted them in large pots instead of sinking them in the ground. Since I don’t get to the CT garden to water as much as I’d like, the tomato plants have been somewhat stressed over the summer. Could the added stress have made the plants ripen their fruit?

By: margaret

margaret — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:15:26 +0000

Welcome, Daska. I feel your pain. Have had several ripe ones, finally, but as you will see on today's post am figuring green tomato recipes (in this case for mincemeat pie filling w/apples and raisins) are in my immediate future. See you soon again, I hope.