Tomato gardeners wait patiently for their plant to develop and bear fruit. And when the first fruits are set, the idea of finally eating the fruits of your own hard work is very appealing. Yet time after time, home gardeners keep seeing their plant full of green tomatoes that simply refuse to turn red. They wait and wonder if their tomatoes will ever be ready for harvest. So if you are someone wondering why your tomatoes don’t turn red, the secret answer is right here in this article.
One of the most important things that many people don’t realize is that how quickly tomatoes ripen depends on their variety. There are determinate varieties and there are indeterminate varieties. Determinate varieties are plants whose vines end in flower clusters and mature early. So you don’t have to wait long for your tomatoes to turn from green to red. However, indeterminate varieties continue to develop vines even after the fruits have set and take longer to ripen. These are the ones that will take the longest to mature.
Also, varieties that develop small fruit turn red much faster than varieties that develop large fruit. So if you don’t have the patience to wait for your tomatoes to ripen, choose determined varieties that produce small fruit.
The outside temperature is another thing that controls how quickly the tomatoes turn red. Lycopene and carotene are two components that help tomatoes turn red and are only produced when the temperature is between 50 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. So if the ideal temperature is not maintained, you will be looking at your green tomatoes for much longer than you want. Preheating the soil before transplanting and using mulch to maintain the optimum temperature are two options you can consider to ripen your tomatoes much sooner.
When tomatoes turn green, they produce a chemical called ethylene, and this chemical helps the fruit turn from green to red. However, if your tomato plant is located in a windy location, the ethylene can be blown away and delay the ripening of the tomatoes.
If you are starting your plant from seed, it is important that you start the seeds as soon as possible. The ideal time is about 8 weeks before the date of the last frost. This will ensure that as soon as the growing season arrives, your seedlings are ready to be transplanted. Tomatoes need warm weather to grow and set and ripen fruit. Starting early will ensure that when the tomatoes turn green, the weather is still warm enough to ripen them early. If the temperature gets cooler around fruit set, you may need to end up harvesting green tomatoes. So start early.
If you want your green tomatoes to ripen fast, the right temperature, sufficient lighting, regular watering, and supplemental nutrition are factors to pay due attention to. It’s true that tomatoes are easy to grow, if you’re one of those keen gardeners who wants the best fruit in the neighborhood or just wants to harvest red tomatoes instead of green, then be sure to care for your plants carefully. And you can rest assured that you never have to wait for your tomatoes to ripen.