How do you do it?

[Holly]

Hello all,

I'm looking at ways to ripen fruit and veg and I'd love to hear recommendations from the grapevine!

Do most of you use cloches on the patch to encourage ripening, or does anyone favour an alternative? What is the best method of pruning sideshoots?

It would be great to see any suggestions you have on getting your crops to ripen!

Your comments may be edited and printed in the October issue of Grow Your Own.

[Florence Fennel]

Tomatoes in brown paper bags with a banana, never fails.

[vicky]

I would always try my best to allow fruit and veg to ripen naturally on the plant that way you get the best flavour.
Pears ripen from the inside so it's sometimes easier to pick them before the wasps get them and ripen them indoors
At the end of the season you can pull up the entire tomato vine, hang it upside down in a dry shed or greenhouse.

[BarleySugar]

I was told ethylene is given off by ripe fruit such as bananas and apples, so these would help ripen such fruit as tomatoes, peaches and plums if they are put in the same fruit bowl. I think the paper bag idea is similar, it helps concentrate the naturally produced ethylene and concentrates it, while letting the fruit breathe while it ripens. My mother used to wrap her green tomatoes in newspaper and put them in a drawer to ripen, but it only works if the fruit is mature enough when picked, if it is not then it does not ripen successfully. They need frequent checking to make sure no fruit rots and contaminates the rest.
I am sure this is why some commercially produced peaches and nectarines never taste ripe, the fruit has not reached the point where the starch has the opportunity to change to sugar.

[Holly]

That's an interesting point about ripening peaches on the plant, BarleySugar.

Does anyone have tips for encouraging fruit and veg to mature while still in the ground? Perhaps a personally developed alternative to cloches for example?