We bought and planted tomato plants back in July, and as always they grew like crazy. They were supposed to be cherry tomatoes, but are obviously much bigger, so they were mislabeled.
But here’s the real kicker…they haven’t turned red. Now, I don’t believe they’re supposed to be green tomatoes (is there such a variety, or is any tomato picked early called “green”) because they are still hard like rocks. We’ve tried ripening them on the counter, in bags, etc., but nothing will make these buggers turn red.
How many green toms per plant are we talking about? Are you exhausting your plants with too many per plant growing at once.
A tomato in a brown bag with an apple will always ripen it. DO NOT REFRIGERATE OR PLACE ON WINDOW SILL. Put toms in brown bag with a red apple and they will ripen.
I believe sunlight is the key to ripening tomatoes on the vine. Check and see if you’ve got suckers – leafy stems that don’t have tomatoes on them, which are both stealing nutrients from the fruit and shading them from the sunlight they need. If you find a largish quantity of “useless” greenery, snip it off.
I have to echo as well that July seems late to plant toms. They have a fairly long season, IIRC. I think early ripeners need at least 75-80 days. Are you very far north?
When exactly in July did you plant these? Most tomatoes take at least 60 days from planting before you get any ripe fruit. I planted sorta late, late June I think, and I’ve still got tons of green tomatoes. One plant I added in early July is just now showing any signs of ripening fruit.
Maybe the old gas-ripening trick will work. Stick some tomatoes and an apple in a paper bag for a day or two, the gas from the apple should redden the fruit.
I have some plants too but we get 25 days of fog & some of mine are red. I think you need to be patient as you might have one of those types that get really big & they simple are not ripe yet. Im using SF Fog tomatoes.
We live on Long Island and it was early July when Mrs. rundogrun put them in the pot. Like I said, they grew quickly, as always, and have actually had green tomatoes on the vine for the past month or so.
As for vine to tomato ratio, given the size and volume of the plants, it seems like there should be more tomatoes growing. In fact, there are probably only a dozen or so spread out over four plants…so maybe some pruning is in order at lunchtime today. I hadn’t tried the apple in the paper bag so I’ll try that with a couple of them today too.
If they’re bigger than cherry tomatos and planted in pots, it’s very possible they aren’t getting enough nutrients (some tomatos do well in pots, but not many). We stuck some beefsteaks in a very poor spot in the ground (just so they wouldn’t die), and they’ve had about eight small (smaller than baseball) tomatos for over a month, only two of which have ripened. In the garden in years past, the same plants would have been eight feet tall, a good three to four feet in diameter, and overflowing with huge (I mean huge) delicious tomatos.
For the record, there are varieties of tomato that ripen green (they are among the tastiest available, I believe), but I don’t think that’s what you have. I’m going to have a go at growing one called ‘green grape’ next year.