Hey Hollers, not sure of the particular problem, but tomatoes ripen with temperature.If it aint warm, they won't do the deed. However, don't be tempted to pick them and or put them in full sun. it isn't the sun that ripens, it's the ambient temperature. Are you having a coolish summer? I dunno. But patience has more than once proven itself to be the answer. if all else fails, i can get a recipe for green tomato chutney. Yummo.

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The secret is the soil.

Hey GC. You're right of course. Tomatoes on the sunny side will ripen when those on the shady side will not. My point is that it's not the light of the sun that does it, but the temperature. Too much sun can cause sunburn which ruins the fruit. Too little temperature will prevent the fruit from ripening. So be patient Hollers. And if, as i said, all else fails, green tomato chutney is awesome...

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The secret is the soil.

They just aint ready mate. And no amount of anything green will force 'em.
BTW, greetings from the warmest winter i've had in Oz for ever too.
Weathers' a mess, little wonder the plants are stuffed up.
I don't think we had a frost this year. We normally get a light 3 or 4 with maybe a heavy one or two. This year, nothing under zero! Must've been something we burnt;-)

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The secret is the soil.

Ciao hollers,

Sounds like you might also be in USDA zone 5 like I am. I remember visiting PA one summer and it got brutally humid like it is here in Toronto. Humidity, with all of its moisture, makes it tough for the tomato plants to pollinate and set fruit. Earlier in the season when it wasn't as humid, your plants probably set some fruit and then stalled, as some of mine have. Don't despair, they WILL ripen, but it's been a brutal summer for all of us Great Lakers. My best advice to you is to water once a week during drought conditions for about 2 hours with a soaker hose and mulch your plants with some straw to conserve moisture. That will hopefully stave off foliage disease and prolong the season. Environment Canada has predicted a warm Fall for us which most likely will trickle down to you as well. If that's the case, we should at least get an extended harvest.

Buona fortuna,
Julianna

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Thanks, everyone, for the comments and advice. I guess I'll just have to wait a little while longer!! And hopefully, like Julianna says, I'll get an extended season with a warm fall!

Thanks again!
Holly
P.S. Like Toronto, it has been extremely humid here this summer, too.

I just got my first two cherry tomatoes!!!!

My big one's are a long way off from getting
big, let alone red!!!

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Weezie

Don't forget to be kind to strangers. For some who have
done this have entertained angels without realizing it.
- Bible - Hebrews 13:2





http://photobucket.com/albums/y250/weezie13/

Hello!

Just wanted to let everyone know you were right. Patience was the key. I now have several tomatoes in varying stages of red!! Yippee!! We ate a couple this weekend, and of course, they were yummy!! Better late than never!! )

Holly

Hollers,
Congrat's on those maters!!!
Isn't that one of THE BEST FEELINGS IN THE WORLD?

Fresh homegrown, freshly picked and made in the kitchen........YUMMMMMMY, you just can't beat it...

Unless of course you have a other home grown veggies WITH IT!!!

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Weezie

Don't forget to be kind to strangers. For some who have
done this have entertained angels without realizing it.
- Bible - Hebrews 13:2





http://photobucket.com/albums/y250/weezie13/

Awesome hollers!

My couple tomatoes are still very green. I don't even know how they'll be.. they were the "tiny tim" tomatoes that came with my wonder egg seeds!

I do have some roma plants, and I think one of the 3 plants I put out, has 1-2 teeny tiny tomatoes on it. Steve was certain I'd not see ANY tomatoes, for as late a start as I got on them.. they aren't even all that tall. I'd say my tallest is *maybe* 3 feet tall.

Meg

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I reject your reality, and substitue my own!
My favorite digital camera photos that I took.
My family, garden, and a bunch of misc. photos!

I'm having the same problem as many others have mentioned: I have tons of green tomatoes even though it's been warm for a long time and it's already August 18th!

Because my garden isn't in my backyard (but rather a plot in a community garden), I've had a hard time keeping a close eye on it. That, combined with a busy schedule, has let my 4 tomato plants get out of control! They're huge and bushy and brimming with green tomatoes. They've been that way for at least a month now, with the exception of a few ripe cherry tomatoes. I try to remove the suckers and pinch off the terminal ends, but there are too many branches to get ahold on. One of 'em is so heavy it broke its cage and fell over on top of my strawberries! My problem is that I am leaving the country to study abroad in a month!

My question is this: Can I cut off a bunch of branches, even those with fruit on them, w/o seriously harming the plant? Would this help the plants fruit ripen a bit faster? This is my first time gardening and I'll be so sad if I never got to taste the fruits of my labor!

Ciao Bunny,

You can prune tomato plants if you choose, but all you'll be doing is maybe concentrating the plant into producing larger tomatoes. This is what fair contestants do to get those monster tomatoes. However, if your plant isn't a monster-sized tomato variety, you'll just end up with less fruit. I'd leave the plant to its own devices as God intended and just practice patience.

Buona fortuna,
Julianna

PS FYI for all of you waiting somewhat impatiently for your tomatoes to ripen: I've got over 50 different varieties in the garden and over 150 plants if I bothered to count them all (and that doesn't include the volunteers). Some of them I've already pulled up as their season is over and replaced them with clones and some of them I've yet to harvest. Some of the latter aren't even showing any signs of blush yet. So it really depends on your transplant timing, the variety(ies) you're growing, and environmental conditions. Patience, grasshoppers ;o)

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Longy,

I use organza bags (the kind used for wedding favours) to cover blossom clusters because I grow plants 2' apart. I remove the bags once the fruit has set and tie a bright-coloured ribbon around the stem to let me know which fruit I need to use for seed-saving. When those fruit are ripe, I squish them into small yogurt cups labelled with the variety name, including seeds and some pulp. That's left out of direct sunlight for at least 5 days until a mat of fungus appears on the top (you may want to do this outside if your nose is delicate). I then pour that off and rinse the seeds several times, being careful not to wash them down the drain, letting the pulp and lighter seeds wash out. What's left in the bottom are clean seeds without the gel. Those get poured onto a labelled paper plate and left to dry, again out of direct sunlight. This drying step can be done inside the house if you have the room. That's all there is to that.

Hope that helps,
Cheers,
Julianna

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An old wives tale says that if you lay a ripe banana near unripe fruit or vegetables it speeds up the ripening process - worth a try if you're desperate or have any over-ripe bananas you don't want to eat!

lol junjun, what kinda squash? There are lots of little squashes out there, as many really as the huge ones. What poundage (or kilogrammage) are we talking about here? I harvested a Marianna's Peace today that was over 1.5 lbs and a bicolour Burracker's Favourite last week that was just shy of 2 lbs. There are even larger varieties than these that didn't make it into my garden, but I don't do anything special besides amending the soil in Fall and again in Spring and providing a root-prodding fertilizer at transplanting time.

freestacy, how do you like your Jellybean tomatoes? I confess to being interested in that variety based on its name alone...it's my nickname. Are they good producers? When did you transplant out?

Cheers,
Julianna

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