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I've finally got some green tomatoes -- now what?

We've had a dreadful year! It rained almost non-stop throughout June and July, and our garden is mostly a no-show. Over the past couple weeks, however, we've gotten more zucchini than we can shake a stick at and some snow peas and snap peas.

But for the longest time, no tomatoes. Just in this last week, we got hundreds -- several varieties, from beefsteak to Tiny Tim's. They don't seem to be ripening, though. No evidence of blossom end rot, but they're all still quite green and firm.

What will it take to get them from here to something we can eat? We've been having an unusually warm spell this past week, but I doubt it will continue much longer. Once they reach this stage, how many bright sunny days (approx.) will it take? If the weather turns sour again, is there anything we can do to recover what we've got?

We were so looking forward to making our own tomato sauces, ketchup, salsas and chili sauce to get us through the winter! I'd hate to lose them now while we're so close!

Thanks for any advice!

..c..

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Permalink Reply by JoyfulC on August 28, 2009 at 8:22pm

Patience I got -- I'm just wondering if this end of Ontario is going to have what we need to bring these tomatoes in ripe!

But Troy gave me a kick of insight! Our tomatoes are in containers. Worse comes to worst, perhaps we can bring them inside and give them artificial light (we bought a light system last winter for starting "ringers" but never got around to using it) and heat to get them through. Not exactly natural, but good enough for the freezer!

..c..

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Permalink Reply by Troy Anderson on September 11, 2009 at 6:43am

Any luck yet with getting ripe tomatoes? I lost all of my plants about two weeks ago to some kind of leaf blight. I think that I spent so much time giving to the plante early in the year that once thy started to give back I ignored them nd got bit. Good luck with your light. I would try to use a high preasure sodium bulb for flowering and ripening.

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Permalink Reply by JoyfulC on September 11, 2009 at 7:41am

We've been eating some cherry tomatoes from our garden. The leaves on these plants are in really bad shape -- brown and holey -- but the fruit seems to be doing okay. I was wondering if it wasn't a reaction by the plant to the heavy draw on resources from all the fruit.

Our larger tomatoes are still green. I'm holding my breath! I've heard several people say now that they lost their whole crop right at the end. I'll try to get some pics.

My condolences on the loss of your plants. Do you think it could be that "late blight" that's been making the rounds?

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Permalink Reply by JoyfulC on September 12, 2009 at 1:13pm

Hi again, Troy. I uploaded some pics of my (persistently green) tomatoes to my Tomatoes 2009 album, as well as some showing leaf damage to my plants and some damage to some fruit I just spotted today. But the affected tomatoes were all in one bunch and the rest on the plant looked fine. I'm going to go out and look again to see if there was any damage to the stem they were on.

I cut some of the damaged ones open for you to see. Do you think this is similar to what happened to yours? The rest of this plant looks particularly good -- the leaves and stems are nice and green, little damage.

Thanks for your patience! I'm new at this and I'm experiencing tomato anxiety.

..c..

Troy Anderson said:

Any luck yet with getting ripe tomatoes? I lost all of my plants about two weeks ago to some kind of leaf blight. I think that I spent so much time giving to the plante early in the year that once thy started to give back I ignored them nd got bit. Good luck with your light. I would try to use a high preasure sodium bulb for flowering and ripening.

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Permalink Reply by Troy Anderson on September 13, 2009 at 9:05am

Well I looked at the pictures you posted. That is the same blight that took my plants. Same spots on the leaf and on the fruit.

I do know that tomatoes feed very agressively when they are setting fruit but I had the same problem. Not sure what to do with that yet. I will let you know if I figure something out.

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Permalink Reply by Heidi Marie Kooy on September 23, 2009 at 12:36pm

do what ma ingalls would do, make green tomato pickles or try a green tomato ketchup:

http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,piccalilli,FF.html
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Green-Tomato-Relish/Detail.aspx
http://www.grouprecipes.com/12750/amish-green-tomato-relish.html
http://southernfood.about.com/od/tomatoes/a/green_tomatoes.htm

oh thanks for the post. i'm now super excited to do some crazy stuff with my green tomatoes!

Heidi

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Permalink Reply by kim bennett on September 27, 2009 at 7:59pm

keep them on the vine as long as possible then harvest and stoe in flat boxes wrapped in newspaper under a bed or in a closet they will ripen and you may have tomatoes through jan even feb

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Permalink Reply by JoyfulC on September 28, 2009 at 9:51am

Really! That's interesting. So we should at least harvest them all before the frost, even the green ones, eh?

My beleaguered tomato plants have a new pest in the form of Dolly, the Dalmatian, who chows down whenever she sees one starting to ripen. The stinker!!

After this year, I'm considering giving up on tomatoes altogether. If it's not one thing, it's another! I never really liked tomatoes until I had my first vine-ripened one, a couple years back. The storebought ones taste _nothing_ like the vine-ripened ones. Still, I'm wondering if it would be less grief and aggravation to buy from a farmers' market.

kim bennett said:

keep them on the vine as long as possible then harvest and stoe in flat boxes wrapped in newspaper under a bed or in a closet they will ripen and you may have tomatoes through jan even feb

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Permalink Reply by Sharon on September 29, 2009 at 8:44am

Torry said:

Patience.

JoyfulC said:
Perhaps my message was a bit confusing. I wasn't asking what I could do with green tomatoes, but rather what to expect between now and when the tomatoes ripen. What needs to happen? Do they need so much sunlight? So much warmth? Our season got off to a really late start, and so I'm wondering what it will take to get them from here to ripe.

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Permalink Reply by Sharon on September 29, 2009 at 8:53am

Your idea to bring them onto the sun porch is a good one. You can also pick them if all else fails and wrap them in paper. The larger ones will ripen in about 2 weeks. They are not as good as vine ripened but still better than anything in stores ! Makes you wonder how in the world they grow those tomatoes in the stores to make them so tasteless. Maybe next year ,start your plants earlier. We start ours about 6 weeks before the last frost in our area . Grow some determinate varieties as they ripen earlier and all at once so canning is easier . I have grown here for 30 years and never missed a season in growing tomatoes -growing as many as 20 kinds /year. I know it can be a challange in colder climates . :)Sharon

Sharon said:

Torry said:
Patience.

JoyfulC said:
Perhaps my message was a bit confusing. I wasn't asking what I could do with green tomatoes, but rather what to expect between now and when the tomatoes ripen. What needs to happen? Do they need so much sunlight? So much warmth? Our season got off to a really late start, and so I'm wondering what it will take to get them from here to ripe.