Help! Newbie Tomato Gardener!

[LPBeier]

Late Spring I was at our nearby Canadian Tire Store (They sell EVERYTHING) and saw these really sad looking Tomato plants. I "rescued" four of them - a lemon boy, beefsteak, superfantasic and can't remember the name of the other one.

Because of my Dad in the hospital I forgot about them on the outside table - they sometimes got watered and sometimes didn't. In July I planted them into a small area filled with a really good mixture of different organic soils.

Well, these plants got so big, and never having grown them before but remembering my parent's garden I bought these scrawny bamboo stakes for them. They got totally weighed down with tomatoes and of course broke free from their stakes.

It is now approaching frost season and they are still all green (I have laid them out so they get the light. One lemon boy ripened but I couldn't see it until it was rotten.

Can I save them by picking them all and leaving them somewhere to ripen? There must be in excess of 50 tomatoes there!

 

[Andy M.]

They will ripen best on the vine. If you pick them and ripen them off the vine, they will taste like supermarket tomatoes.

You could also use them green. Fried green tomatoes, pickles, etc. I posted a green tomato and oatmeal bar recipe earlier this week that would use some up.

 

[LPBeier]

Thanks, Andy.

If I leave them on the vine should I cover them at night? We are getting a lot of rain (of course) and the nights are getting cooler.

 

[Andy M.]

If there's a frost danger forecasted, I'd cover them with a sheet of plastic or similar until morning.

 

[Alix]

Leave them til you are about to get frost. Then pick them all. They still taste WAY better than supermarket tomatoes. I leave mine on the counter or in the garage in a cardboard box and check regularly. I've done salsa, tomato sauce and about a zillion toasted tomato sandwiches lately. YUM! There's lots you can do with them, but use them fresh as long as you can.

You can cover the plants if its only going to be 0 or so, but any colder and your plants will be toast. Good luck!

 

[jennyema]

I have a garden full of green tomatoes still, too. And I planted them in May.

For some reason this year they didn't ripen like they usually do.

Most years, I'd have gallons of sauce by now.

 

[Uncle Bob]

I have a garden full of green tomatoes still, too. And I planted them in May.

For some reason this year they didn't ripen like they usually do.

Most years, I'd have gallons of sauce by now.

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Miss Jenny}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

 

[jennyema]

Smoooch!

 

[sparrowgrass]

Go out there right now and pinch off any tiny tomatoes or flowers--then the plant will put its energy into ripening the other fruit.

If you have a warm garage or basement, and if they are small enough to manage, you can pull the whole plant out of the ground and hang it upside in a warm place. You might get a little more ripening out of them that way.

Or--fried green tomatoes, green tomato pie, pickled green tomatoes. . . . .

 

[Drowsy]

Hi, I am new, and love it that you have gardening threads!! We've been gardening for many years, and any of the above mentioned methods should work fine to ripen your tomatoes.
It has been a strange year for gardening here (MO), we thought we were going to lose a lot of plants because of the weather. But we've put away a lot of tomatoes, and now are waiting for the hot peppers to ripen. It seems most plants started out slow, but some that started as 'runts' have done the best. One never knows, I guess.

 

[Alix]

Hey Drowsy, welcome to DC! Nice to know I'm not the only one whose peppers are slow to ripen.

 

[LPBeier]

Well, yesterday we had to make a tough decision about the tomatoes. It wasn't regarding frost, but the west coast rain that plays just as much havoc on the plants (I have been reading up on tomatoes on the west coast). The leaves were turning black and several of the tomatoes were already rotting.

So we picked them. My four scrawny little plants produced around 75 tomatoes that we picked (though weeded out some little and/or rotten ones from that) and left at least 30 more with the vines as being small or rotten.

I have pictures and as soon as I get them developed, I will post them.

Thanks everyone for your help. I will know better next year!

 

[LPBeier]

Drowsy and Alix, I will have to try peppers next!