GYO needs you

[Holly]

Hello grow-your-owners,

GYO needs your help to find the best ways to bring this summer's crop to the point of perfection. There's such a wealth of experience on the grapevine that it would be great to hear your opinions on various methods to encourage ripening

Does anyone part lift their onions or dwarf French beans to encourage ripening?

Has limiting your crop's irrigation made a difference to the harvest in the past?

Do you sacrifice small or immature fruits that are hindering the rest of the plant?


Your posts may be printed in the October issue of GYO

[SueA]

The only things I try to do to aid ripening crops really is to remove some of the leaves shading grapes & tomatoes. As long as you leave enough leaves to feed the crop you can remove any which are shading the fruits so that they can get enough light to ripen.

[Sara]

That's a great idea, SueA. I sometimes pop a few green tomatoes alongside a banana. This usually turns them red fairly quickly. Has anyone else tried the banana method? What did you think of it?

[reetnproper]

I've used bananas to ripen tomatoes and chillis before now but I think they lose some of the sweetness and flavour which sunripened fruit have so now I only use this method for end of season fruit which probably wont ripen on their own.

I remove leaves around tomatoes and squashes/pumpkins (the latter once the fruit has reached a good size) to facilitate ripening. I also remove small squash/pumpkins which have stalled and stopped growing, as well as courgettes, cucumbers and squashes that have failed to fertilise, so that the plants can use their energy in growing exisitng viable fruits or starting new. fruit.

Reet
x

[SueA]

Thanks Sara, I've tried an apple in a paper bag with unripe tomtoes & it seemed to help but it works almost as well if you put a few ripe tomatoes in with the green ones. I've never tried the banana method although I've heard others say it works. Sometimes I've picked all the green tomatoes left on my plants when blight has struck & just put them all on saucers on the kitchen windowsill to keep an eye on them so that I can throw away any which start to show signs of blight & the rest usually do ripen up eventually although I always feel tomatoes ripened indoors don't taste as good & tend to develop a bit of a 'floury' texture.

[Holly]

Yes, I agree SueA - nothing can beat a ripe tomato straight from the plant!

[Llamas]

Agree with above; tomatoes ripened off the plant just don't quite meet the expectation set by ones ripened on the vine. However, green tomatoes are yummy too. Nice and zesty fried or chopped up in a salsa with chillie, coriander, lime juice and garlic.

[greengas]

I recently had the misfortune of one of my inca bush tomatoe plants snapping clean off at the bottom of the growing stem just as it came out the ground. I gathered all green toms from the plant(all good size) and put them in a clear plastic sack which I have left on back seat of car, the warmth and the light is now ripening them a treat and most are now red

[Mikey]

When my onions reach a reasonable size I clear the earth around them and fold the tops over to concentrate the plant into focusing its efforts into increasing the size of the bulb.

With the weather having been so hot during may and june, a lot of fellow allotmenteers raspberries have suffered with fruit either not maturing or not getting any at all. My crop were in their first year so I had removed any fruit forming has anyone overcome the hot early weather to produce a great summer raspberry harvest.

My pumpkins are up on slates at present to make the most of the sunshine, and bring them on as per gyo recommendations, thanks.

[thecornflake]

With Chillis, the first one will usually be a really big one that if left to grow will result in much less growing elsewhere on the plant, so removing the first one will result in many more following. Unless you want one really big chilli of course

[Holly]

Hello everyone,

There have been some wonderful suggestions on this thread- thank-you very much! Look out for forum posts in the November issue of GYO, out on Sep 3.

In the meantime, happy harvesting!

Holly