How To Ripen Your Green Tomatoes

When Fall hits, we have to decide what to do with our unripened tomatoes. Russel Smith shows us some tips and trips on how to ripen your green tomato plants. The first thing to do is to pick all the tomatoes of your plants that are yellow, or have slight yellow to them. The deep green tomatoes are not going to ripen, they will stay that way until they get moldy or freeze, whichever comes first.

There are a couple ways that you can ripen the slightly yellow, or yellow tomatoes. After you have picked all of the tomatoes you can put them into cardboard boxes. You need to be sure not to stack them on top of each other though. Once the tomatoes start to ripen they will bruise if they have been lapped over each other. After all the tomatoes are in the boxes you need to put them somewhere. This should be a place without extreme weather conditions. There shouldn't be too much sun or too much cold. The best place for this is usually the garage. Place the boxes in the garage and cover them with a towel. Also, be sure to check the tomatoes every few days for any rotting ones. If any of the tomatoes are rotting, be sure to get them out of there before they got on the other tomatoes. Be sure you also take off the stems before leaving them there. You really don't want anything on the tomatoes that could potentially bruise or damage the other tomatoes.

Another way you can ripen tomatoes is by leaving the tomatoes right on the vine. This way they are still vine ripened tomatoes and they are able to get the nutrients from the vine. Russel demonstrated this method with his 6 foot tall tomato plant (watch video on how to grow one) and he moved it. Before he moved the plant he dug into the soil to show you how deep the roots go, which was how the plant could grow so big and tall.

To move the tomato plant you're going to have to pull up the roots, kick as much dirt off of it as you can, or just cut off the stem. By doing this the tomatoes are still going to be able to grow on the vine. Once the tomato plant is lifted from the ground, move it somewhere else, such as the garage. The garage will stay 30 to 40 degrees warmer than the outside temperatures, which will imitate a greenhouse for the plant. This will help accelerate the ripening of the tomatoes.

For more tips and tricks visit us at: growitnowgarden.com