WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Ripening tomatoes

September 8, 2011

We have a short growing season in Vermont and sometimes, our tomatoes just barely get started when we have to worry about a frost-- especially if you are growing some of these heirloom varieties with huge fruits that can be very late maturing.

There are some things you can do now to encourage the fruits and push them along toward ripening faster. Some people think they should take all of the foliage off the plants and that will mature their tomatoes faster. No. Actually, tomatoes mature based on two things: the maturity of the fruit and the temperature. They don't need sunlight, but they do need warm, 70 to 80 degree temperatures and the fruit has to be what we call "mature green" to start coloring up. So don't take the leaves off randomly because what that will do is expose the fruit to the sun and you might get sunburn on your tomatoes.

What you can do is remove the flowers and small fruits. If you remove these flowers and small fruits now, the plant will send more energy into the tomato fruits, so it will ripen the bigger fruit faster. Don't waste your time with those little fruits.

These little guys will never mature in time before a frost, so it's good to just get rid of them, That's going to send more energy and more sugars into existing fruits so they'll be sweeter, too.

There are other plants you can do the same technique with, too. Cucumbers, winter squash, and pumpkins are sending out vines with new fruits and new flowers that will never mature. They're not going to get there in time. Cut off the ends of those vines and pick the flowers. You can saute the flowers with a little garlic and olive oil. It's very nice! You can eat those small pumpkins or winter squash while they're immature like a summer squash. Slice those up and saute them and eat them. The plant will then spend more energy ripening the larger fruits faster and before a frost.

By Charlie Nardozzi