# Ripening tomatoes **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 7, 2004, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripening-tomatoes/273479 "2004-11-07T07:54:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripening-tomatoes/273479/1 "2004-11-07T07:54:40Z")
Tomatoes will ripen after being picked if exposed to light. What wavelength of light causes them to ripen? Is it visible light or does it have to be UV? ---
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripening-tomatoes/273479/2 "2004-11-07T12:15:19Z")
Are you talking about ripening picked green tomatoes? This might be too Humble-Opiniony but here goes: I think it comes down less to light and more to the tomatoes’ maturity. I was always taught to wrap green tomatoes in newspaper and ripen them in a _dark_ place. I was also taught that while you can ripen a green tomato without a star (that star-shape on the bottom of the tomato) it will not be as mature, meaty and flavorful as a tomato which does have the star. FWIW, I had to pick a bunch of green tomatoes a few weeks ago and ripened them under a kitchen halogen light. Didn’t do the newspaper thing. The larger ‘star’ ones have been pretty darn good. The others were just okay. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripening-tomatoes/273479/3 "2004-11-07T14:37:32Z")
Tomatoes don’t need light to ripen, they need ethylene gas. [Here’s a gardener’s guide to ripening tomatoes](http://www.garden.org/articles/scripts/articles.taf?id=374&ch=foodguide&food=tomatoes-h) and a detailed look at [ethylene in tomato ripening](http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/BODY_CV206). I ripen my tomatoes in a paper bag, in a dark corner of the basement, and add an apple to each bag to supply the ethylene.