Tomatoes not riping..

Ive got lots of tomatoes but they just wont ripen, any ways to make them turn red?

I have tried a over ripened banana..

Thanks.

P.S. They are growing outside in pots..

 

Hi Gaz, all my toms are outside in pots and growbags too; luckily mine are ripeing quite quickly, they are in a sheltered suntrap that recieves sunlight from morning to early afternoon and then again for the last few hours of the day.

I would leave them on the plants as long as possible while the weather allows, once it goes cold and wet again, remove the whole truss and either try putting in shoe boxes in a cool cupboard (worked for my remaining few green ones lat year) or try putting them on a windowsill :thumb:

 

Hi Gaz.

Is there any way you could move yours to a warmer, more sheltered position?

 

Have you removed any leaves yet? Removing leaves allows available sunlight to actually get to the fruit to help ripen them, at this time of the year where you do not need to the plant to grow anymore..you could remove ALL leaves..just leaving the fruits to ripen on the stem.

Steve...

 

Good point

 

Un fact, Monty said last night that you can remove all the leaves without harm, so the energy goes into ripening the toms.

 

Thanks for all the replies..

I removed about half the leaves about 6 weeks ago and removed all the leaves 2 weeks ago..

I have had about a dozen green tomatoes in a draw with a ripe banana for the past week and they are still green..

 

I've used the ripe banana trick before but in my experience it's nowhere near as quick as leaving them out on the window sill. I only use the banana if I have 4 or 5lb or more of toms..for a dozen as you have...pop 'em on a plate on the windowsill.

Steve...

 

Cheers, I'll try that..

 

So one banana for every two tomatoes then ...





I'm rather keen on getting my big toms to ripen as I want to save seed from them.

 

Yes - move them to Spain.

 

tattybatty

Could try taking off all leaves around tomatoes for a start,to make maximum use of sun still available.Leave ripe tom next to green one,as could help to set it off.Agree with using ripe banana,as set off gas which may work,although works best if toms are in enclosed area.

 

My big toms (5" dia.) still haven't ripened, so I've doubled up on the bananas and bagged them to concentrate the ethylene gas around the tom. It's important to get these ripe as I want to save the seeds.



Something that hasn't been mentioned above is reducing the watering to encourage them to ripen - does that help?

 

I did'nt want to risk introducing blight from outdoor toms into the polytunnel. It was my father who told me over 40 years ago that slowly reducing watering toms to nil at the end of the season would assist in ripening.

At least that tom above is now turning orange. It might seem a lot of effort as I'll probably only get about 6 seeds from each of those toms, but they cost $1 each + P&P from USA and reduced seconds bananas at Morrisons were reduced to 25p for half a dozen.