There is no longer wait than the wait for a green tomato to turn red. 30 days. That's how long it takes for a green tomato to begin changing colour. Then it's another 20 or more days before it's fully mature. That means from the moment you first notice your tomato to the time you eat it, there are 2 months of waiting which actually feels like 6 months of torture. #scientificfactish
I am about to fill your head with things you never knew about tomatoes. I will bust myths and disprove "facts".
But mainly I will encourage you to pick your tomatoes WAY earlier than you are right now.
MATURE GREEN tomatoes have a smooth bottom and shiny finish.
Don't pick it if you don't have to, but if winter is rolling in and frost is in the forecast there's a good chance a shiny, green tomato will ripen on the counter for you.
It won't has as developed flavour as if you wait a few days for it to ripen on the plant and in the sun.
(IMMATURE GREEN tomatoes have a slightly bumpy bottom & dull finish.)
Table of Contents
FRIED GREEN TOMATOES
Mature green tomatoes are what you want for fried green tomatoes.
Look for a tomato that's: Green with no hints of colour, a smooth bottom end, shiny skin. When it's cut there should be jelly, but not a lot of it and seeds should be fully formed inside.
BREAKER tomatoes are letting you know they're mature. If you can see any colour change, you have a breaker on your hands.
If you pick it now, it will turn red on the counter.
You: But ... isn't that stupid? It's depriving the tomato of it's GOD GIVEN RIGHT TO nutrition & flavour!
Me: No.
By the time a tomato starts to show a break in colour, the mother plant cuts it off. It literally starts to grow a skin between the tomato stem (at the knuckle) and the plant at this stage.
BREAKERS are DONE. They've got all they can from the plant and are now on their own. You can pick them at this point and they'll ripen. I tend to leave them on the plant until the next stages though.
TURNING tomatoes are turning colour. You'll see colour around the tomato instead of just on the very bottom.
30% of the tomato has blushed with colour.
THIS IS THE EXACT MOMENT YOU SHOULD PICK YOUR TOMATO
When a tomato is at or between TURNING and PINK you should pick it. If it looks like the tomatoes above or below PICK IT PICK IT PICK IT.
WHY IS THIS THE EXACT MOMENT TO PICK?
- This is when tomatoes start to give off that irresistible tomato scent to raccoons and squirrels.
- This is when tomatoes will split if they get too much water.
If you pick tomatoes at the TURNING or PINK stage you'll eliminate the two main killers of a happy tomato harvest. Pests and splitting.
Infuriatingly raccoons and squirrels only seem to like the scent of tomatoes not so much the taste. I've never found a tomato that has more than 1 or 2 bites out of it before the raccoon has moved on to the corn.
PINK is the classification if the tomato shows 30-60% colour on it.
Waiting to harvest until the tomato is at the end stages of pink (60% of the tomato has developed colour) increases the chances that the tomato will split or be ravaged by a raccoon.
LIGHT RED tomatoes are light red. Not much more to say about them than that.
Pick it. It'll get ripe on the counter in a couple of days.
RED tomatoes are the IT tomato. It's what you're going for. What you want to make salads with and slice up for toasted tomato sandwiches with mayo. Or Miracle Whip. Whatever you like.
Should you refrigerate tomatoes?
The #1 rule tomato growers are always fed is that you shouldn't refrigerate your tomatoes.
That rule is wrong.
If your choice is between a tomato rotting on the counter before you get a chance to use it and putting it in the fridge PUT IT IN THE FRIDGE.
When you want to use it, let it warm up to room temperature. I can assure you, compared to one that was stored on the counter the taste and texture will be indistinguishable most times.
There are a lot of wrong rules about tomatoes actually.
Most of which I willingly believed for years "just because". No more.
4 Popular Tomato Myths
- TOMATOES LIKE HEAT
Not true.
Tomatoes like very moderate temperatures.
21-24C - (70-75F) makes them happy. When the temperature gets over 29C (85F) the compounds responsible for ripening shut down. Your tomato will ripen faster if you pick it and bring it inside during those temps. - REMOVE THE LEAVES SO THE SUN CAN RIPEN IT
Not true.
Tomatoes don't need sun to develop colour and ripen. The leaves that surround the tomato actually provide a bit of welcome shade during hot weather. But if the tomato has dense vegetation you can get rid of some leaves so the plant has better air circulation. - YOU HAVE TO STAKE YOUR TOMATOES
Not true.
You can let them sprawl all over the ground if you can't be bothered to stake. They'll just be more susceptible to disease and pests. I know a market gardener who grows fields of tomatoes and doesn't stake any of them. - PASTE TOMATOES ARE FOR SAUCE
This is true & false.
Paste tomatoes like Roma or San Marzano do have the best consistency for making sauce but they're also good for regular eating.
And any other tomato can be turned into delicious tomato sauce as well.
I make roasted tomato sauce with heirlooms and can tomato sauce with bushels of Roma. But you can interchange the two. Make roasted with paste tomatoes and canned sauce with regular ones. So don't worry if you only have one or the other.
In conclusion, if you're only going to take 2 things away from this post, I think they should be these things:
- If a big rain is coming and your tomatoes have started to turn colour, go out and pick them before the rain so you get them before they crack.
- If you pick a very ripe tomato, don't leave it on the counter unless you're eating it that day. Put it in the fridge.
But the one little piece of advice in this post that you might have missed is probably the most important. Raccoons are getting ready to attack your corn.
Hi again. Wanted to let you know that I tried your method of growing tomatoes up strings. Game changer. Made it easier to keep it pruned and no hidden fruit rotting in secret. Thank you!
That's great. Yes, if you keep them under control, remove the suckers, bottom leaves etc. You can have a REALLY compact tomato plant that spills out tomatoes. ~ karen!
My golden retrievers also liked tomatoes off the vine! At least they ate what they picked. Unlike the @#*&$# squirrels.
I was told by a gardener that squirrels take one bite became they only want to drink the tomato juice. If you leave them a dish of water to drink they’ll leave the tomatoes alone. It’s been working for me for the last few years but maybe the squirrels just like my neighbors garden better.
I've been growing tomatoes for about 30 years. The great thing about gardening is you always learn something new. This year it's been if I want to eat it, I can't leave it to ripen on the plant, whatever it is. I have so many pests it's a battle I almost never win. And I also have learned that the shorter plants hidden by gigantic marigolds and zinnias tend to go unnoticed unless it's rats that run around on the ground and look up. Bastards. Here in Florida we are loaded with insects and diseases and pests that steal our enthusiasm for gardening. I was defeated for 2 years but I'm back! I refuse to give up. Thank you Karen, for being an inspiration to me to stay in the game.
I know. It can be sooooo disheartening. But then when something does well, it's SO exciting. For me it's the rutabaga of all things this year. ~ karen!
I have not been able to grow a rutabaga.
The rats always eat my tomatoes on the vine, or steal them altogether. But I always thought I had to leave them to ripen. I'm SOOOO picking them early now. 😍
I'm so glad I'm not the only one with rats. They're country rats, little and unfortunately cute. I wage war with them but they always win. They've devastated my garden this year. When you tell people that they are completely grossed out so I tend to keep it to myself. We are comrades!
Yes! I have a few ripening in a brown paper bag right now. ~ karen!
What is the reason for ripening tomatoes in brown paper bags. What stage do you pick the tomato to store them in the brown bag.
Hi Wanda. Brown paper bags allow moisture in and out so it lessens the chance of rot while increasing the speed they ripen because of trapped gases. Also, if a tomato rots the bag will absorb the guck. ~ karen!
Great info! Thank you, thank you, thank you....
I know this is not post for AI , an i know it’s out of Pandora’s box! Yesterday it even made my hubby reaslize just how dangerous it is. First was a AI song done in Johnny Cash’s voice (Barbie Girl) second was (A National reporter supposedly doing two different adds ) . Scammers are using people we trust with AI . Be careful, as National reporter stated on news and report all these adds (You See).
Thank you for this post. I would leave my tomatoes on until they were red and couldn't figure out why they would split. I have a cage around my raised beds to prevent the critters from theft. Found out the chicken wire wasn't small enough for chipmunks. Little bugger is biting my strawberries and leaving them half eaten.
My strawberries are being eaten as well. The current suspect is voles. ~ karen!
Chicken wire is next to useless. I only use 1/4" hardware cloth for fencing, under raised beds, over/around plants until they're bigger. It's really helped. Great for chicken coops and runs, too.
What timing. I accidentally picked a dark pink tomato this morning and was worried about it turning red. So glad to hear that it will.
Interesting story - I "accidentally" became a tomato grower this year. After a lot of years of trying to grow tomatoes with no luck at all, this year I decided to turn that bed into a rose and zinnia garden which has been spectacularly successful. Once the zinnias started sprouting I noticed something funny growing along with them. Wasn't sure what it was but decided to wait it out. Turned out I had 8 tomato plants in amongst the zinnias. all 8 currently have at least 10 or 12 tomatoes, all in different stages of development and so far the squirrels haven't noticed them! I'm going to take your advice and pick them early!
Well you did better than I did this year then. My tomatoes are successful but not a single zinnia I seeded outside germinated! I restarted seeds but I fear I'm too late now. ~ karen!
Did
not
know.....
You just saved me from screaming at the squirrels and throwing nibbled cherry tomatoes at them. Little bastards take one friggin' bite and then PLACE THEM ON TOP OF THE FENCE POSTS, MOCKING ME!
THIS! THIS is a revelation! Thank you, you are my Muse.
So much mocking from squirrels. They are THE WORST.
Squirrels LOVE to leave crime scene evidence on fence posts and rails. ~ karen!
Thank you, great information!
Thanks Linda! ~ karen
That is awesome and beautifully documented with pictures, thank you for that incredibly helpful info, I didn't know any of that and have been a very unsuccessful tomato grower.
Thanks Cathy! ~ karen
Interesting! And explains why we get so many split tomatoes. Who knew we were waiting too long to harvest them? I hope to see an post shortly on how to control fruit flies if my tomatoes are all ripening in the kitchen, haha.
Yikes! Don't like your pop-up in the middle of reading your blog......which I love!
There are no pop up ads, other than ones to subscribe to different series on my blog. Those can be closed by hitting the X in the upper right corner or touching any other part of the page. ~ karen!
I'm happy to report that, for once, I already knew this. Do you know why? Because I've spent nearly 50 years growing tomatoes and I used to lose so many to squirrels and rats and birds and creepy crawly things because I thought at the beginning they would be best if they were left on the vine till they were fully ripe. Critters always wrecked them a day or two before I was going to pick them. Gradually I discovered what you said in this post. Except about the refrigerator -- that is new to me. So thank you for bringing new wisdom to all of us.
By the way, I read somewhere recently that "Vine Ripened Tomatoes" was a marketing phrase someone made up (who knows when and where?) and that's probably what led all of us in the beginning to think we had to leave them on the vine till they were "perfect". Wankers.
Wankers indeed. Smart ones, but wankers nonetheless. ~ karen!
Love when you condense the info and get straight to the point, Great post!
Question: does this also apply to heirlooms? I have some black krim, yellow brandy wine and lemon boy, was going to let them get to their gorgeous colours before picking but now I’m wondering if I should pick them sooner?
Hi Lindsay. It applies to all tomatoes. Just watch for colour change no matter what it is. For "green when ripe" tomatoes like Green Zebra and German Green you can go by feel. There should be some give to the tomato. ~ karen!
Karen, thanks for this great post. Such good info: who knew the plant cut off supplies to the tomatoes? I feel better that I accidently knocked one off the vine. It's ripening on my counter now. Hah! racoons and squirrels!
Keep it up (until you're sick of tomatoes) and then 🍅🦝 ~ karen!
I learn stuff from you I didn’t know I needed to know., Thank you……
Now THAT was a good post. Timely, funny and very useful.
I’d been wondering where the old Karen had got to, but yay, she’s back!