Gadenin日本語Get the appJudge ripeness by the color around the stem
A tomato colors from the blossom end upwards, and the shoulders around the stem are the last part to change. When the color has reached the stem the fruit is fully ripe and the sugars are at their peak. Fruit that is red at the bottom and still green on the shoulders will ripen indoors, but it never tastes as good as one left to finish on the plant.
From open flower to ripe fruit is around 50 days, nearer 45 in hot weather and closer to 60 when it is cool. Note the date a truss flowers and you will know roughly when to start checking it.
- Look at the shoulders Look down at the fruit from above. If there is no green left around the stem, pick it. If only the bottom has colored, give it a few more days.
- Pick in the cool of the morning Fruit picked in the heat of the day is already warm and does not keep. Pick early and move it straight out of direct sun.
- Leave the calyx on Bend the fruit upwards against the joint above the calyx and it comes away with the green top attached. Fruit with its calyx loses moisture more slowly in storage.
Write down the flowering date and the picking date and after one season you will know, for your garden and your variety, exactly how many days it takes.
Ripening indoors and where to keep fruit
Fruit picked half colored will finish in two or three days at room temperature. Do not put it in the fridge before it is ripe, because chilling stops the ripening and destroys the aroma. Keep it out of direct sun, and stand it stem side down so the shoulders do not bruise.
Fully ripe fruit keeps for about a week in the fridge. Take it out an hour before you eat it and the flavor comes back. If you have a glut, skin them in boiling water and freeze them, and they go straight into sauces and stews later.
| Condition | Where to keep it | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Half colored | Room temperature, out of sun, stem down | Two to three days to ripen |
| Fully ripe | Fridge | About a week |
| Ripe, in quantity | Skinned and frozen | About a month |
Thin each truss to about four fruit
A truss may open six or seven flowers, but if you let all of them set, every fruit stays small and the plant exhausts itself. When the fruit reaches golf ball size, take off any that are misshapen or lagging behind and leave about four per truss.
Keep the ones nearest the base of the truss. The fruit at the far end set later and rarely sizes up. A thinned plant gives you even, well-filled fruit and flowers more freely on the trusses above.
- Thin at golf ball size Once the fruit on a truss reaches golf ball size, go through it and pinch out the misshapen and the undersized.
- Keep the four nearest the stem Count four back from the base of the truss and remove the rest. Where two are the same size, keep the better shaped one.
- Do not waste the thinnings Green tomatoes pickle well, and sliced and fried with the skin on they are perfectly good eating.
Late in the season, remove new trusses
Flowers that open in the last six weeks of the season will not ripen before the weather turns, and the plant will spend energy on them anyway. Pinch those trusses out and let everything go into the fruit already on the plant.
Green fruit still on the plant when the first frost is forecast should be picked and ripened indoors. It will be paler than fruit ripened outside but perfectly usable. Then clear the plants and take the old growth off the plot.
- Pinch out late trusses Once the season is inside its last six weeks, remove new trusses while they are still flowers. Taking them before fruit sets costs the plant far less.
- Pick green fruit before frost When frost is forecast, pick the green fruit and ripen it indoors out of direct light. A ripe apple in the bag speeds it up considerably.
Holding back water to improve flavor
Watering a little less during the picking season concentrates the sugars and gives you a better tasting tomato. There is a limit, though: let it get too dry and you bring on blossom end rot and splitting, so keep it just short of wilting.
Under a rain cover you can manage this properly because rainfall is not interfering. In open ground the weather makes the decision for you, and you will usually pick more fruit overall by prioritizing not splitting over concentrating flavor.
- Stop just short of wilting If the leaves are standing up in the morning, the plant does not need water. Water when it wilts in the day and has not recovered by dawn.
- Under cover, water sparingly With no rain reaching the soil, a small amount at the base every three or four days is enough.