Harvesting Green Tomatoes

[lizzyf]

I am harvesting the loads of green tomatoes from the greenhouse to place in a drawer to ripen.

A trivial question I guess but do I leave them on the vine or separate them and should I wash them before storage

Regards

Lizzy

[rustylady]

You need to be careful not to damage them, so if you do remove them from the truss do it carefully. I wouldn't wash them, they shouldn't need it.

[lizzyf]

Thanks Rusty. I think I will take them off the vine as they will take up less room. There are such a lot from 6 plants that they will fill a drawer. Should I put paper or card or anything between the layers in the drawer.

Cheers

Lizzy

[rustylady]

A single layer would definitely be better. Trouble is, if you pack loads into a drawer you will have difficulty checking them. And you really do need to check them daily to make sure none are starting to rot. Do you really want to ripen all of them, or are you prepared to use some of them to make green tomato chutney?

[lizzyf]

Thanks for the advice. I will check them daily. Have put them in 2 drawers - haven't any more spare drawers without a good clearout and the garden comes first.

Not keen on Chutney but have family members to supply as they ripen - weighed them 21.5lbs in all

Found small bore holes in a couple of them - any ideas?

Best

Lizzy

[arpoet]

I picked about 5lbs, varying from dark green to showing a little colour, the other day and they are in a plastic mushroom try with some banana skins in the airing cupboard. I left the stalks and vines intact.
As the the become ripe enough i will be making pasta sauce for use in the winter months.
Roger

[veggiechicken]

Found small bore holes in a couple of them - any ideas?
Best

Lizzy

Keep any damaged one separate from the goodies. They're likely to rot and may affect the rest.
This is how I'm ripening mine http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...dea_68333.html About half the ones in the photo have ripened enough to be usable.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Found small bore holes in a couple of them - any ideas?

Lizzy

Probably slugs. They climb tha knows

[lizzyf]

Cheers for that - thought they looked a bit like maggoty type holes. Slugs have been a pain. I do a night patrol with salt, use pellets and beer traps but ran out of out of date beer.

Lizzy

[lizzyf]

Aberdeen Plotter could the holes have been made by worms.
I have just finished emptying the pots in the greenhouse and a lot of the tomato pots had quite a few worms in the bottom of them

[rustylady]

I doubt very much whether worms would have made the holes. They live in compost or earth, and don't climb into tomato plants.

Much more likely to be slugs, snails or caterpillars. Whichever, discard any damaged fruit.

[veggiechicken]

... or cut one open and see what you find

[BertieFox]

They will last longer and ripen more effectively if kept together on the same branch. This is particularly true of smaller types. To hasten ripening, you can put them in a polythene bag, or even an open bowl, with ripening bananas. The ethylene gas given off hastens the ripening process. Alternatively wrap each fruit individually in paper and put in a warm drawer, which you should check regularly of course as they ripen.

[lizzyf]

Scalple well kitchen knife - Nothing - The holes turned out to be not very deep and there was nothing to be seen. As advised, I have discarded

Regards

Lizzy

[veggiechicken]

If there's nothing in there Lizzy you could use them for cooking - but don't save them to ripen with the others.