This is how green tomatoes ripen

This is how green tomatoes ripen

With warmth and patience to maturity

Green tomatoes pose a significant health risk. Even if there are only a few green spots on it, the content of toxic solanine is questionable. During the season, experienced hobby gardeners therefore only harvest their tomatoes when they are fully ripe. That doesn't mean that the last tomatoes of the year will go to the trash. This is how the green fruits ripen in the house after the harvest:

  • Pick all tomatoes that turn yellow or red from the stalk
  • wrap in newspaper and store at 18 to 20 degrees Celsius
  • alternatively, place in a disused shoebox without the fruits touching each other

also read

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  • Green tomatoes - consume at your own risk
  • When are tomatoes in season in Germany?

Specimens with patches of mold or rotten stains end up on the compost. It is useless to cut out green or bad spots. The solanine also remains in the tomatoes, as do fungal spores or bacteria.

How a boiler room helps unripe tomatoes

If a tomato plant is still covered with lush fruit, not all fruits have to be harvested individually. Since only heat is required for subsequent ripening, the boiler room takes on an unusual task.

Pull the entire plant including the roots out of the ground. Now carefully carry it to the cellar, where the boiler room is usually nice and warm. Here you hang the plant upside down from the ceiling on a string. After a few days, pick plump, ripe tomatoes. The leaves should remain on the shoots because they still release valuable nutrients.

Apples and bananas make tomatoes ripen

Ripe fruits and vegetables give off ethylene. This gaseous, organic compound has a positive effect on the ripening process of other fruits. Therefore, place an apple or a banana in the immediate vicinity of green tomatoes in a warm place. With this trick you drive the unripe fruits to color and break down solanine.

Stored in a cardboard box or a paper bag, the tomatoes are also protected from annoying fruit flies and other pests. It is important to note that the fruits are not exposed to a damp environment during subsequent ripening.

This is how the subsequent ripening succeeds in the bed

No place in the house to let tomatoes ripen? There is no reason to capitulate to green fruits. In the field, the project succeeds as follows:

  • bend the tomato plant and place it on a wooden slat
  • the fruits must not come into contact with the ground
  • place a mobile cold frame over it and cover it with opaque fleece

Tips & Tricks

Clever scientists found that a red film spread under tomato plants accelerates ripening. The long-wave light impulses mobilize a protein that signals to the fruit that other plants are already carrying ripe tomatoes. It turns out that they are emulating their lead. Well-stocked garden centers now have the dark red film in their range.