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Late season Tomato tips

As the summer season comes to an end, thoughts of the cold weather and eminent frost
comes to mind. Your tomato plants look great, loaded with all those green tomatoes and now it becomes a race against time to ripen them. Good grief!! what do I do with all these green unripe tomatoes?

Here are some suggestions to help your tomatoes ripen faster.
One trick is to root prune the plant. Dig a spade or garden fork into the soil 6-8″ deep and cut around a circle 12″ from the stem. Rock the spade back and forth to “shake” things up a bit. Careful not to dig up the plant. This pruning will stress the plant and signal it to ripen the fruit faster.

Another tip to hasten ripening is to pinch off any flowers and fruit that is too small and will not mature in time. Trim back any new shoots so that the plant will use its energy to ripen the fruit instead of producing new growth. Start doing this about a month before an expected frost date.

What to do with all those green tomatoes?.
If Mother Nature throws you an unexpected frost and you still have lots of green tomatoes, there is still hope. Harvest all your green tomatoes. Check for blemishes, bruises or spots and discard the bad ones. The best tomatoes for ripening will be ones with a slight yellow-pinkish color at the blossom end. Clean the tomatoes in a 1 percent bleach solution. (1 tablespoon of Clorox to 1 gal. water) dry and place in a shallow tray lined with newspaper. Do not let them touch each other. Keep them in a dark room at 60-70 degrees. They need warmth not light to ripen. Check often for any spots, leaking or rotting and discard bad tomatoes immediately as they can affect the others. Ripening can take 3-4 weeks. Some varieties, such as Long Keeper that store better than others.
You can also fry or pickle the green tomatoes.