Cherry tomatoes

[teakdesk]

How do you get a truss of ripe tomatoes then?

Try putting the skin of an over-ripe banana in a paper bag and put the bag over the truss that needs ripening. Loosely seal the neck of the bag.


Wait....


Remove bag when all are ripe!

[esbo]

That's a very good question, one I have asked myself. I have had trusses of gardeners delight a foot long or more that nearly made it. I think commercial growers use a lot of tricks to get this, The variety, timing (holding back the plant by the use of temperature and watering regime then letting it suddenly go mad. They may well remove trusses so all the energy goes into less fruit etc. All in all quite a sophisticated operation and not worth it for likes of me. I am hovering over each one just waiting to pounce on it and gobble it down. Later in the season when there are more than I can eat I can let the trusses expand a bit.

I heard the commercial growers breed tomatoes which ripen at the same time to make picking easier and hence more profitable, but the the downside is they have less flavour, also I think they may use ethylene? to make them ripen.

But as they are breed for appearance the flavour is not so good, indeed it seems to be non-existent in some supermarket varieties!!

[teakdesk]

I heard the commercial growers ... also I think they may use ethylene? to make them ripen.

Ethylene is the gas produced by an over-ripe banana skin as in my post above.

[esbo]

Ethylene is the gas produced by an over-ripe banana skin as in my post above.

Yes, but it seems it causes them to ripen too, which is kind of a bit weird, rather circular.



Ethylene: The Ripening Hormone