BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Gardening Getting Green Tomatoes to Redden

We have a frost coming tonight so I had to go out and save the tomatoes that I could -





Those were from the back garden area. I didn't bother with the container tomatoes.

So now what? I just put them in a window?

Some people wrap them in newspaper, some put them on the windowsill, a friend of mine puts them under Growlux lights, I just put them in a basket on the table. They seem to slowly ripen up whatever you do, except the REALLY green ones...those you slice, bread lightly and fry up.

Oh, Lisa! Those are beautiful!

Most commercial tomato growers harvest tomatoes while still green, transport them and then gas them to ripen them. They use ethylene which is a gas that ripening fruit emits.

You can duplicate this process by placing the green tomatoes in a brown paper sack (or plastic sack) along with some ripe bananas or apples.

I had always put them into a brown paper bag until they ripened. I never knew about the ripe banana part.

Jeanne, you're doing the right thing. Tomatoes give off ethylene as they ripen but if you put in some ripening bananas or apples, it will hasten the process because green tomatoes don't emit a lot at the start and it takes time to build up in the brown paper sack.

My green tomatoes are ripening all by themselves just sitting there in the colander.

Yes, they'll do that naturally, too. The bagging method only rushes the process.

We would put them in those beer flats in a single layer. Then we would put them in the kitchen and porch area. Actually, we put them wherever we could find room.

Hi Lisa, as Lori mentioned, a ripening banana does the trick. Apparently the banana must still be slightly green to maximise the ethylene gas it produces. (JOY)

OK we used the banana process and it worked perfectly!

Before - 10/31 -



After - 11/20 -



We ate a lot in the middle too