From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Ohio

My tomatos(better boys) are growing real good but they dont want to ripe up and turn red,they been at a stand still like this for a couple weeks. I have a load of green tomatos on this plant that are a little smaller then a baseball,some the same size as one. The plant still continues to grow like wild fire. Any thing I can do to to get these ripe?

My Cherry tomatos are growing by the hand fulls everyday, Im not having a problem with these tomatos turning ripe and the plants are side by side.

Brooks

7/25/2006 10:45:39 AM

ENGLAND

Brooks. Change to a slightly higher K ratio feed, although we are experiencing the same with our Tom's this year and we changed over to higher K ratio over a month ago and they are still green. Just a weird year i guess.

Regards
Mike

7/25/2006 11:09:11 AM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

It takes time for the tomato to mature and turn ripe. All tomato plants have different maturity dates. We plant some early 4th of July and the later ones like Better Boy, Brandywines, and Cherokee Purple. This year we also planted one called health kick. From what we have eaten off this plant it will be one of our new favorites. meaty and flavorful.

7/25/2006 11:30:16 AM

Assuming you have already "topped" the plants(the first thing to get fruit to ripen),,here's an old "upnorth trick" to get tomatoes to ripen faster (important with our early frosts) root prune 1/3 of the roots,,use a shovel 6" from the main stem and push straight down,,,,this stresses the plant and will get the fruit to ripen

try it on one plant and you'll see the results in a few days,,,,

7/25/2006 11:42:11 AM

addison Il

my tomatoes are the same way a huge amount on nice looking plants and nothing there all green and have stayed green there big but have not ripened yet getting a little worried as last yr its was tons of red i was sick of maters and now cant get one to eat at all.

7/25/2006 4:56:03 PM

the best thing to do is let nature take it course and wait since most of above methods either don't work or will damage future production.

7/26/2006 3:42:03 AM

Nothing damages production like a nice 26 degrees in late August,,the methods I mentioned have worked in this area for me.You might also remove some folage to allow better sun penetration on the fruit.
One thing I really dislike is hauling buckets of "greenies" to storage only to loose half the crop and half the flavor of a vine ripened fruit. These were passed on as suggestions to those that can't wait for ripe 'mators on at least one plant to enjoy while waiting for others to mature.

7/26/2006 5:28:30 AM

Ohio

Unkadan, Ill give it a shot on one of my plants, I dont eat them anyway and I just like to watcxh em grow, I just give them away. I havnt topped my plant out yet, I didnt know about that. THANKS!

Brooks

Ps. Matt! WHERE YOU BEEN! I havnt seen a post from you in over 6 months,LOLOL

7/26/2006 1:39:29 PM

Ohio

oH and Matt, the little tip you gave on the boards last year about using extra calcium on my corn to help my corn stalks stronger and stay up worked, I have twice as many corn stalks this year and havnt had not one fall this year from wind.

Your alright in my book, a little moody but alright.

thanks for that tip
Brooks

7/26/2006 2:06:59 PM

Ohio

Unkadan,

Just came from outside and did what you said, Im curious to see how fast this will work, I have another plant right beside it I left go just to compare the diffrence in how fast they will ripen. This is what makes growing things fun, trying little shit like this makes growing that more interesting and less borning.

Thanks again Unkadan

7/26/2006 2:20:24 PM

Montoursville, PA

Root pruning is a solid good management tool. It works best if a bunch, of fruit are white leaning, to pink. It is a contest trick, of old, to get, that first ripe one,in ahead, of the neighbors. Not that much different than pruning the secondarys, on a pumpkin. Ouch! I'm hurt reproduce.

7/26/2006 9:38:16 PM

New Brunswick

I have already had half a dozen ripe ones...ahead of the neighbour...he only had two. LOL. But mine were off a couple of Early Girl patio ones. The ones in my garden are Scotias this year and they put you in mind of an octopus ride at the ex. Branches lying right on the ground. This morning I have been gathering them up and tying them up using strips of cloth and fencing rods.

7/27/2006 12:30:57 PM

Farmville, Virginia (mfowler@hsc.edu)

Same here in Virginia. Getting a few ripe ones but man they are slow turning! Does nayone know if the powdered Kelp we use on Pumpkins to enhance fruit growth will do the same for tomatos?

7/27/2006 7:11:12 PM

Danville, CA (petman2@yahoo.com)

The calcium from the pumpkins is good for Tomatoes. Helps blossom end rot and supposedly better fruit. I spray out the remaining pumpkin foliar on the home garden.

7/28/2006 12:39:53 AM