tomato trusses

[Potstubsdustbins]

Did you read the Maryland study carefully.

To me it reads that if you remove some green fruit you get less problems with ripening i.e. 0% problems. As against 20% problems with ripening when no fruit is removed.

Potty

[hearts151]

I kinda see where esbo is coming from.

on the point where the tomatoes that have ripened being in complete shade and so therefore direct Sun was not a factor. I can understand why that may be the case. read a few places that to help ripen tomatoes at end of season you place in a dark drawer with a banana, which if true suggests to me that Sun directly on the fruit isn't important. Most likely Sun is very important as it will allow the entire plant (leaves) to create the chemicals to ripen the fruit. so perhaps in esbo's case the fruit being in more humid warm conditions under all the growth allowed them to ripen first .. although you would need to watch as they would probably also be the prime conditions for them to rot once temps lower.

The point about the plant being stressed makes sense tome logically too. imagine if you will lol, that you were a tomato plant. If you were given perfect conditions and water supply and nuitrients then you will probably be happy and try and produce and grow as much fruit as possible. However if your nutrients were to fall or water levels were to fall or you had too many vines to try and maintain then as a plant your probably going to put your energy into ripening the fruit you already have rather than further growth. you'll want your fruit to be as tasty as possible before you die so animals will want to eat it in the hope you can create new plants the following season. So i can see the logic behind stress helping to ripen the fruit. Just that obviously the later in the season the likely hood would be that your fruit may end up going rotten due to the weather and you don't get anything.

But then I dont have a clue, this is my first year growing anything but I can see why cutting side shoots allows your plant to have more energy in growing bigger fruit ndmore fruit, but I can also see why stress can cause the plant to 'run to ripening' the fruit it does have.

[esbo]

Determinate plants have branches that stop with a flower head/tomato truss at the top, there's no need to prune them in the UK - just to support the loads of stems is a problem.

It's usually indeterminate/cordon toms that get pruned to keep them to one branch, and then get stopped if they reach the roof of the greenhouse, or anymore trusses stnad no chance of ripening, as already said.

I always understood that the gases released by the ripening of the first fruits triggered others into ripening.
So it helps to leave a few that aren't quite there, to hang for a bit longer to encourage the others, rather than pick them to fully ripen off the plant.

Well I will leave mine on then, I usually leave them on anyway, but have picked a few when orange.

I wonder how the first fruit manages to ripen

Actually I have realised now that is no point looking for ripe tomatoes except for the first tomato on the first truss, that is always seems to be the first to go. I kind of just used to look for ripe tomatoes, now I just look at the first tom on the first truss, and compare it to the rest on that truss. Before I have been looking at higher up trusses but that seems pretty pointless.

[esbo]

Did you read the Maryland study carefully.

To me it reads that if you remove some green fruit you get less problems with ripening i.e. 0% problems. As against 20% problems with ripening when no fruit is removed.

Potty

Thanks, yes maybe I read that wrong, I am a bit dyslexic at times and miss the odd word.
I will have to recheck that because it did seem odd to me at the time and I had been leaving toms on the plant.


Anyway I have another Tigerella ripening now, this is not on the bottom truss but the next one up
which is pleasing, I thought the next one on the bottom truss would turn next but it seems the first on the next truss up can turn first.

Wonder how long it will take for the third truss up to start ripening?