Loads of tomatoes - but still green

[TracyK]

Any chance of them going red now?

Should I keep feeding them?
Should I remove the flowers that are still appearing to concentrate energies into going red?

[MaryAnnSingleton]

ours are nearly all green still - loads and loads,a few turning a little orange..will be interested if anyone can advise too !

[JDBfangirl]

Have you been taking the sideshoots out?
Try putting a banana skin near them, it is said to help them ripen

[TracyK]

I took loads of lower leaves and sideshoots off yesterday - the plants are very tall and gangly.

But I left the flowers on - but I don't think I need any more tomatoes - so could I remove them?

They tomatoes are still quite small - will the banana only help for fully grown ones?

At this rate I'll be having tomatoes for Xmas dinner!

[JDBfangirl]

What have you been feeding them btw?

[TracyK]

tomorite - but only 3 times now - it was only 3 weeks ago that I got any tomatoes showing.

Am in Scotland and not had many hot sunny days!

[JDBfangirl]

Am in Scotland too but have ripe toms!

You could try stopping the food for a few days and see if that has any effect, just water them as required.

The banana thing will only work if they're ready to ripen, as soon as you get some orange ones, you could pick them and store them in a paper bag at room temp to ripen

[MaryAnnSingleton]

ours have had tomorite..will maybe pick orange ones and put in paper bag with a banana !

[TracyK]

Are yours in the open air jdb? or greenhouse?

My mums are in the greenhouse and she has bags and bags full! I don't know why I bother every year - I should just go round to her garden and raid it!

[SlartyBartFast]

you could ripen on window sill,
fried green tomatoes are ace

[TracyK]

They are still tiny - but may well give in next week and pick them!

Do you put any sugar on them when you fry the green ones?

[SlartyBartFast]

i didnt put sugar on, never heard of that

[Takver]

I would be patient - unless you expect a frost to come, at which point pick and ripen inside. My mum used to keep them on trays in the garage in the cool, then bring in a few at a time & ripen (yes, in a brown paper bag with a banana in it). Any that have started to turn at all, even if they are only going a lighter green, will ripen fine.
If you expect a one off frost you can put down straw, detach the plants from their canes and lay them down on the straw with fleece over them.
I would pinch out the top of the plant to stop it growing any further.
Luckily we have a polytunnel, it is so wet here that outdoor toms always get blight

[Earlybird]

Mine are finally starting to turn orange, but looks as if worms have got to quite a few. . What can I do to prevent that happening in future?

[JDBfangirl]

Mine are inside.

If you plant african marigolds near your greenhouse it will attract hoverflies and they eat greenfly/aphids... am not sure about worms though, it's more likely to be slugs or even ants?

[Earlybird]

Hmm - not sure. Is there a creature called a cutworm? Think that is what I've heard attacks tomatoes.

Also - what causes the top of the tomato to 'split'? Got a bit of that going on too...

[snorkle]

The splitting is very common and due to watering inconsistencies: lots of water after a dry spell causes the fruits to swell after the skins have toughened a bit and so they split.

Never heard of the worms.

[rachelp73]

Found a caterpillar munching on one of my cherry toms today - there were loads of half-munched ones. Later on, there was a wasp munching on a half-rotten tomato on top of the soil. Went back half an hour later and this wasp was rolling around twitching. That rotten tomato must have fermented. It must have sobered up and flown off cos it was gone an hour later. Either that or the goddamn caterpillar ate THAT as well.....

Mine are tumblin' toms type. What have not been munched on are VERY small, even at the point of starting to turn red. Why are they so tiny?! We have a south facing patio but have had hardly any sun this summer - is that the only reason for them being so crap? They were shite last year too. Good the year before (although picked 'em in October - ripened brilliantly on a sunny window ledge).

[TracyK]

Still time then for mine Rachel if you picked yours in Oct.

I think I'm deffo getting a greenhouse for next year. Got a plasticy type one this year - but it's been worse than useless really.

[bramblebooks]

... for the ones that do not ripen, try making green tomato chutney. mmmmm

[chocolatespiders]

i have loads to but still green.
hopefully sept sunshine will ripen them...

do you keep going with tomorite when they are full tomatoes?

[misi]

if they are still green in a few weeks or so and, my dad always picked the toms, made sure they were dry and wrapped placed in a box with layers of newspaper and kept in a cool dark place. the tome would ripen slowly on their own (its the chemical they give off xylene or something like that) and we had toms all over winter. sometimes my mum would make the green toms into chutney too.
I have many many green toms on my plants still, I pick about 15 toms each day as they ripen but usually opick them while a good orange colour, and place them on a window sill where my son can reach them when he fancies one as they go red. picking a bit earlier like this helps the rest left on the plants.

[ProfYaffle]

I've got this problem, spent some time on google, got loads of green tom recipes, looking forward to my green tom mincemeat for xmas ....

.... and now they're starting to ripen! Gits.

[thornrose]

OOh good advice here, I was despairing of ever getting a red tomato! We are supposed to have a warm sunny September so fingers crossed! I've stripped mine down to a virtual single stem and pinched out tops apparantly that helps.

[TracyK]

Ooh Thornrose - I've stripped a lot of my leaves off too - but asked this question on growyourown.co.uk/grapevine and someone on there said the plant needs the leaves to get the toms red - oops!

[thornrose]

Oh no All is not lost, my uncle is a tomato growing expert and he was the one that told me to strip the leaves so I'm staying positive.
He's had a bad crop this year too, so it's not anything we've done!