What should I do with my tomatoes

[Motherofmonsters]

Hi!

I've got some outside tomato plants (that I didn't plant but grew from last year) but I don't whether I should pick all the tomatoes or leave for longer. More seem to be splitting and the plant dying back but there's lots of green ones.

The big tomatoes are not going red at all but the plant is still green and healthy, shall I leave them or try to ripen in the window.

Any thought would be greatly appreciated

Thank you

The big ones

I would pick them, they will still ripen on a sunny window sill.

I would pick them and if they still fail to ripen on a windowsill you could make green tomato chutney

My fil sits the ripe red ones next to the green ones to encourage them to ripen. It seems to work for him.

Remove any leaves that have gone brown or are shading the ripening fruit. Take off all the tomatoes that have split and you'll need to find a recipe to use them up straight away.

Many of the remainder will ripen, what I usually do is take off the reddest ones and put them in a dish on a sunny windowsill. That gives the plant the best chance of ripening any bigger green ones.

Keep the plants watered evenly and don't let them dry out. That is what causes the splitting - when they are watered after a dry spell the fruit swell faster than the skins can grow, and they split.

When it is right at the end, take off the remaining green tomatoes of any size, and put them in a dish with a banana. If they still don't ripen, cut them into pieces and freeze like that. You can then chuck a few into casseroles whenever you want. I've still got some left from last year (didn't get around to growing any this year).

Thanks for this post @Motherofmonsters I have the exact same problem. My first time growing tomatoes so totally inexperienced 😔

I have put unripe tomatoes in a cardboard box in a dark drawer with some ripe tomatoes, and all the unripe ones ripened quite quickly.

Split ones - chuck in a pasta dish or find some other recipe to use them up.

They'll ripen better if left where they are and are generally ok until the first night frosts. If there's any part of the plant still flowering cut those off end of August so the plant can concentrate on ripening. After night frosts, move indoors or harvest. Put unripe tomatoes in brown paper bags with apples or bananas - they emit games that will help them ripen.

Thank you everyone