Question about tomato plants: pinching out and ripening

[Bill HH]

I am a chopper, I have to restrain myself from completely destroying the poor plants once i get going.
I do find that removing the lower leaves makes watering much easier particularly when using grow bags, its hard to find the base of some pants in a jungle. Also in a small greenhouse it can become almost impossible to get inside because of all the growth. Removing side shoots is very important on inderterminate tomatoes otherwise they will just produce masses of smaller fruit that is very hard to ripen. I was given four "Shirley" tomatoe plants which are supposed to go indoors but I had no room so planted them outside, the trusses are huge and I have had to support the lower ones, one broke off but is just hanging on by small amount of stalk. I have decided to stop them at five trusses to encourage the fruit to ripen. So my advice is to not be afraid of pruning, just dont cut of new trusses by mistake.

[Bill HH]

My tomatoes shalt grow as the good Lord intended

I am a tomato fundamentalist!!!

Yes but nature did not intend these plants to produce as much fruit as the years of selective plant breeding has achieved. The original jungle tomato probably produced a fraction of the amount as modern plants do. By selective cbreeding we have created many plants and animals that would not survive in the wild.

[Potstubsdustbins]

You know what they say about rules and regulations.

'They are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools'

Hearsay is one thing, the years of collective experience here on the vine and in the gardening world in general is something entirely different.

Potty

[veggiechicken]

My tomatoes shalt grow as the good Lord intended

I am a tomato fundamentalist!!!

We all do as we wish with our tomatoes - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't we learn not to do it that way next time.
I'm on my 30+ year of honing my technique. On these occasions I put my trust in Me and the expert Grapes on here.

[IndigoElectron]

Thanks for the replies everyone :-)

I've taken the top of two of the plants and will remove the tops from the others in a day or two, I just want to see what happens as it looks like trusses are forming right at the top. I can easily move them to the West facing wall, in fact I'll probably leave them where they are in the morning but move them halfway through the day when I'm at home, so they get as much sun as possible.

I agree it's all learning and I won't be too disappointed if I don't get many this year, or if they don't ripen. It was just so exciting seeing the first tiny little tomato appear!

I'll continue to update as things progress :-)

[esbo]

Yes but nature did not intend these plants to produce as much fruit as the years of selective plant breeding has achieved. The original jungle tomato probably produced a fraction of the amount as modern plants do. By selective cbreeding we have created many plants and animals that would not survive in the wild.

Well there may be some truth in that. I seem to find conflicting studies on the net, one showed
pruning was better for indeterminate and the other showed not pruning was best but didn't mention the tomato type.

My plants seem to be doing pretty OK in the wild so far, infact it would like to spread even further if it could climb over fences.

Some plants lend themselves to pruning more easily, I found the tigerella seemed to be more of a straight up up one stem plant, yet it is the tigerella I could not get to, and hence was not pruned at all which produced my one and only ripe tigerella.

Which reminds me I must take another photo of my prize specimen.

The one I did prune more may have more (unripe so far) fruit on, but it is hard to tell with out taking some time to do a serious fruit count and weight estimate, especially as it means hacking my way into the jungle!

[esbo]

Thanks for the replies everyone :-)

I've taken the top of two of the plants and will remove the tops from the others in a day or two, I just want to see what happens as it looks like trusses are forming right at the top. I can easily move them to the West facing wall, in fact I'll probably leave them where they are in the morning but move them halfway through the day when I'm at home, so they get as much sun as possible.

I agree it's all learning and I won't be too disappointed if I don't get many this year, or if they don't ripen. It was just so exciting seeing the first tiny little tomato appear!

I'll continue to update as things progress :-)

My lawn always grew best on the west side, although the east side is more shaded so not a fair comparison, But I always assumed that because they got light when it was warmer they did better. But then again when it is colder they get less light, so it's a bit swings and roundabouts.
I have always put my potted plants on west side if I can find room.

Seeing the first ripening tomato is also very exciting although it does seem to take forever on my larger tomatoes. I have quite a few of the smaller cherry variety ripening now. I also just found another of my Tigerella (medium larger) ripening
although for some reason it is only the size of a cherry and it is beside what appears to be the ripe skin of another small Tigerella, look like something ate the insides of it!!

[esbo]

You know what they say about rules and regulations.

'They are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools'

Hearsay is one thing, the years of collective experience here on the vine and in the gardening world in general is something entirely different.

Potty

Well true to a certain extend, you do learn from your mistakes but as a beginner it is hard to bring yourself to butcher the plants you put so much effort into growing!!

Even now I can't cut off flowers!! Mr Bumblebee might sting me if he caught me doing that anyway.
So that is one good reason to leave flowers on, especially as the bee population is in decline, so mine will stay on, I may cut the fruit off later though.

One thing I will have to do is increase the spacing on the plants, but I guess if I pruned more I would not need to!!

[esbo]

I am a chopper, I have to restrain myself from completely destroying the poor plants once i get going.
I do find that removing the lower leaves makes watering much easier particularly when using grow bags, its hard to find the base of some pants in a jungle. Also in a small greenhouse it can become almost impossible to get inside because of all the growth. Removing side shoots is very important on inderterminate tomatoes otherwise they will just produce masses of smaller fruit that is very hard to ripen. I was given four "Shirley" tomatoe plants which are supposed to go indoors but I had no room so planted them outside, the trusses are huge and I have had to support the lower ones, one broke off but is just hanging on by small amount of stalk. I have decided to stop them at five trusses to encourage the fruit to ripen. So my advice is to not be afraid of pruning, just don't cut of new trusses by mistake.

Granted I have a bit of a problem getting to some plants. But this is just my second year and the first year was a late start with poor weather, some of mine are pretty much beyond control now but next year I will be better able to decide what to do.

[esbo]

This seems to be a good article:-

Ripening that huge crop of green garden tomatoes

By Carl Wilson, Colorado State University Cooperative Extension Agent, Horticulture

Here are some answers for gardeners asking whether the large number of tomatoes set this summer will ripen before frost and what they can do to speed the process.

Though October 7 is the average first fall killing frost date for Denver, cold weather and even killing frosts can come weeks earlier in late September. Standard sized tomatoes require 40 to 50 days after blossom set to reach maximum green size. Newly setting blossoms, small and very green fruit won’t mature in the remaining growing season and are best pruned off.

New, vigorous shoots also may be clipped back. Don’t prune off an excessive amount of fully formed leaves as these supply nutrients to fruit. Pruning directs plant resources to fruit that has a chance of maturing.

When the fruit set is heavy, it can work against gardeners. Ripening numerous fruit takes a lot of energy from the leaves and tends to delay the whole crop turning red. If there are only a few weeks before frost and fruit is not ripening, try removing some of the mature green fruit to ripen what’s left on the vine.

Cooler September temperatures help fruit to ripen because the red tomato pigments, lycopene and carotene, are not produced above 85 degrees F nor lycopene below 50 degrees F.

As late September approaches, gardeners often try to extend the life of their plants by covering with cloth or plastic. Covering plants works well for nearly red tomatoes, but not as well for mature green ones. Though foliage may sometimes be saved, research shows that chilling injury on green fruit occurs at temperatures of 50 degrees and decay losses rise markedly on fruit exposed to 40 degrees F. Red ones well on their way to ripening tolerate colder temperatures.

Before frost hits and plants go down, pick and bring fruit indoors to ripen. Extended exposure to cool temperatures interferes with ripening and flavor development. Clip fruit with a very short stem piece left on but one that’s not long enough to punch holes in other tomatoes. Stems ripped out of fruit will open them to decay.

Eliminate green fruit, as research shows it’s more likely to spoil than ripen and never develops the flavor consumers want anyway. Mature green fruit will develop good flavor. Mature green tomatoes are well sized and have turned light green to white. If cut open, seeds are encased in gel and no empty cavity space is present.

In addition to mature green, sort and store fruit by these groups as they will ripen at similar speeds. Fruit may be "turning" with a tinge of pink color showing, "pink" with 30 to 60 percent color showing, "light red" with 60 to 90 percent color present, and others "fully red" but not soft.

Store mature green tomatoes at 55 to 70 degrees F. Once fruit is fully ripe, it can be stored at 45 to 50 degrees F with a relative humidity of 90 – 95%. Recommended refrigerator operating temperatures of 40 degrees are certainly too cool to ripen mature green tomatoes and are colder than desired for ripe ones. Ripening enzymes are destroyed by cold temperatures whether in the garden or in a refrigerator.

Ripen tomatoes in well-ventilated, open cardboard boxes at room temperature checking them every few days to eliminate those that may have spoiled. Mature green tomatoes will ripen in 14 days at 70 degrees F and 28 days at 55 degrees F.

[esbo]

Not too worried about the temperature being over 85F!!! (about 29C).

50F is 10C.