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When to pick green tomatoes
Amadeus2
Posts: 13
in Fruit & veg
When should you pick green tomatoes. These are growing in pots outdoors. How long should I leave them outside,.
0
Posts
Ideally they should be left on the plants to ripen as long as the plants are healthy. There is no guarantee that tomatoes picked when they are green will ripen, but if you have to pick them because the plants become diseased, then place them somewhere warm as it is temperature which ripens them, not light. Storing them with a ripe banana can help as that will release ethane gas which artificially promotes ripening, but keep an eye on them in case any of them (or the banana) begin to rot and remove those.
My tomato plants were looking very sorry for themselves so a couple of weeks ago I took of all the tomatoes (red and green) and made a mixed tomato chutney (Nigel Slater recipe), I knew I wouldn't get any more this season and wanted ti make chutney anyway. Hopefully next year they will last a but longer though and I'm grow to sow late ones intentionally (or outside) for chutney.
Ripening is down to temperatures. Optimum temps are low-20sC and above. The lower the temps, factoring in overnight temps as well, the longer the wait. As a general rule, come the point when it's consistently warmer inside than outside, you're better off taking them inside.
There is not much ripening left in the season now especially if they are outdoors. I would pick them in the next week or so and use them for green tomato chutney or try to ripen them indoors.