There are four possible answers to that question.
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1. I don't know. I'm still wishing they were on the vine with my tomato plants not ripped out.
2. After I pulled the squash plants, the slugs rapidly began turning on the tomatoes. Many were ripening with unsightly markings or half eaten. I hate slugs!
3. It's getting much colder. We've had rain and clouds, parting clouds frequently enough that there is definitely a chill in the air. I don't want to lose my tomatoes to a sudden frost.
4. My husband is going to build a raised bed out of cinder blocks in this spot for a fall/winter tunnel bed. The plants make the space unavailable for building.
So I cut vine after vine of the tomato plants, trimming green (most were actually at the white stage) tomatoes off as I went. I ended the plunder by savagely ripping out the trunks of my six wonderful tomato plants.
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When I first planted these six tomato and two squash plants here, my husband laughed and said it would all get too big. I'd only planted determinate tomatoes that were of a much shorter variety and thought they'd do just fine. Ha! These Romas sprawled out and I never caged them. The photo above is after I'd cut about 5 times that much off.
To the point of the title:
How to Ripen Green Tomatoes
1. Pull tomatoes off the vine so they don't scratch or puncture the other tomatoes.
2. Wash and dry thoroughly. And I mean thoroughly! I didn't dry or wash a bowl so well and mold developed.
3. Layer tomatoes with a thoroughly washed and dried apple (apples aid in ripening).
4. Give them time. Some are ripening in a few days, some a couple of weeks. If a tomato was picked too early, it may not ripen. I plan on freezing the tomatoes as they turn red, and then making a Tomato Sauce with the green ones added in with the reds once the process is complete for the tomatoes that WILL ripen.
Anyway, this is how I do it. How about you??
