The green stuff on tomatoes?

[veggiechicken]

What is the green/yellow stuff that rubs off on your fingers when you handle tomato plants - and on your face and clothes when you're burrowing between them
I've always wondered what it is and why its there!
Thank you

[binley100]

They're obviously not colour fast ..........I've got purple fingers after podding all my purple podded peas

[marchogaeth]

It's the green stuff on tomatoes. You know, it rubs off on you when you handle them ot burrow between them.

[veggiechicken]

Thanks ! You're both sooooooo helpful

[PyreneesPlot]

Its horrid - makes the skin on my finger tips rub off.

Note to self. Carry out cat burglary after armpitting tomatoes...

[Bigmallly]

I think it's mara jo hannah & you lot are on it..........

[veggiechicken]

Surely you have green stuff too BM? At the moment though I can't see the green stuff for red - I really shouldn't clear brambles with bare arms - I'll use secateurs next time

[lottie dolly]

cannot say i have ever noticed anything,VC,are you sure you are growing tomatoes

[veggiechicken]

Awwww you're all having me on! Trying to convince me that I've gone mad
You must have green stuff, you simply must, I insist.......

[lottie dolly]

it's like when i said i get a word repeted end of 1 and begining of next row,NOT 1 peep beleived me lol,insist all yur like,cannot make it appear,is it sap from the plant,when arm pitting ext,or a dust,could it be the variety,

[veggiechicken]

Its green stuff Lottie! Not sap, more like dust. Every tomato I've ever grown has had green stuff on it, on the fruit and on the plant. It gives the characteristic smell of real tomatoes - not the red tomatoey smell but the greenstuff smell! I love it . I only buy tomatoes that smell of greenstuff - I do a sniff test first - so if you see a mad old bat sniffing her way around a shop, it'll be me. (I sniff cakes too and other fruit ).

[Bren In Pots]

Its the stuff that makes tomatoes smell nice well thats what I told youngest grandson

just read your last post VC and it looks like you and me agree on the smell thingie so it must be right.

[veggiechicken]

Exactly Bren It has to smell of greenstuff
And for Doubting Lottie - a photo. (Its surprisingly difficult to take a pic of your own hand!!) Hope you can see some Greenstuff on my fingers......it does smell good

[taff]

I know what you mean. The when you wash your hands it makes the soap suds go bright lime green...

[Capsid]

I used to pick tomatoes for a summer job. I was green at the end of the day and had to take a long shower to get rid of it all. A hat was mandatory. To get it off your hands, a squashed ripe tomato will do it.