Ripening tips for chillies, toms, aubergines & peppers!

[Nikki Arnold]

Morning GYO-ers! We hope you are well?

It might seem a little while away but the time for harvesting juicy homegrown tomatoes, spicy chillies, tasty peppers and shiny aubergines will soon come round, so this month we're asking for your top ripening tips!

And remember if your tip is chosen and printed in the magazine, you'll win a £10 voucher from Thompson & Morgan!




*please note your answers may be edited and printed in the September issue of Grow Your Own magazine 2012

[areia]

Ive got 2 dont place toms on the window sill they will go soft (unless you like them soft) place in a brown bag a put in the cupboard

Out door toms put cardboard on the ground and carefully lay tom plants on the ground and cover with a cloche or makeshift one for a green house effect outside

[Kestrel]

Be patient. I had a mass of green tomatoes 2 years ago and simply left them on trays by a north facing window and every single one reddened and in fact it meant I had fresh red tomatoes over a longer period than I might otherwise have done. Only the very greenest of toms wil not ripen in this way.

[Rhona]

We picked the remainder of our tomatoes on the 17th October last year and ripened them in the utility room, near a window. I made loads of passata and we ate the last 'fresh' tomato on the 1st December.

Other tips... keep your chillies just the tiniest bit pot bound and on the just-moist side of dry. Others might disagree but we only grew two plants in the gh last year and two in open ground at the lottie, and we still have 10 (dried) chillies left to eat from last years crop. It works for me, in other words.

[Paulottie]

Early season I often put banana skins at base of tomato plants to encourage ripening and add a little extra potassium to the soil.

[Samurailord]

I have heard that hanging a couple of bananas on your tomato supports will encourage ripening.

It also provokes plenty of comments about the kind of fruit you are growing

Andy

[T8Ter]

Light, light and more light - ensure all the fruit get as much light as possible, towards the end of the season stop any further trusses forming to save the plant wasting energy, feed them regularly and finally if you have lots of fruit on the plant dig it up and hang in the garage and fruits will still continue to ripen.

[otorongo]

Some of my peppers have ripened already. I didn't know I was supposed to pick them. I had left them on the plant.

My first tomatoes are turning red too, shall I pick them and put under a cloche with bananas? Do they need light or is it better to keep them shaded?

[Alison]

I don't do anything, prefer to let them do their own thing.

[VirginVegGrower]

Banana skins placed next to green tomatoes are supposed to help them turn red. My trick is to leave a ripe one on a truss as it makes the others turn quite quickly.

[Vince G]

Grow them in a polytunnel, been feasting on ripe chillis for a month or more! Toms and peppers are turning now.......just as me and the wife are going away on holiday! D'oh! Must have a winter holiday next year!