Do I strip them now or later?

[Bal]

Hi I was wondering if it's too early to strip the toms of all their leaves to help ripen the fruit. Has anyone else done it yet

[Thelma Sanders]

It's sposed to turn a bit warmer after the weekend, so I'd leave them for a bit longer - unless blight strikes, then you've got no choice.

[maverick451]

I had a few blight patches on some leafs so ive completly stripped them nearly bare with just some top branches to try and slow the spread, Its rained nearly every day here for the last 6 weeks so now surprised!

[vixylix]

I've stripped one (mostly as it was being eaten!) and cut back the other a bit - essentially hedging my bets Its working though - they're definitely more yellow than green now. Only problem is that I have pulled most other things up so they are now the main target for the earwigs / caterpillars

[Lumpy]

I've got 2 of my out door toms hanging upside down in the porch at the moment in an attempt to try and ripen the fruits. It worked last year so having another go as the weather has left me with loads of good size fruit and no real way of getting them red.

Ever the pessimist I don't think the weather will improve long enough so the sun (I do vaguely remember what it looks like) can do the job for me.

[rosiepumpkin]

I've stripped two thirds of the leaves off my greenhouse tomatoes. My light gets a lot less from this time of year, regardless of days of cloud, and they are clearly thinking of not bothering any more. It's so much lighter in there once the leaves were off and there are a few left for photosynthesis.

The leaves on the floor are also a handy caterpillar trap.

[rosiepumpkin]

To be honest, once October comes I don't want to go down and all sense of growing deserts me. So I suspect the little darlings will be upended in the greenhouse not too long from now so I can clear out and put my comfy chair in there.

[Jungle Jane]

I haven't stripped all the leaves/branches yet,there's 3 branches left at the top of my tomato plants. I'm happy with the ripening so far,not worried,I'm picking them as they're turning colour (they fully ripen indoors) this makes the green ones left on the plant start to ripen,so the next tomatoes are ready a couple of days after that. This is the fastest way to ripen them I find. It's awkward uprooting the plants,but a good idea if it's going to stay cold,I'm thinking we might have a few days of warmth this month.

[Bill HH]

I have been toying with idea of spraying some of my tomatoes with red paint, just to pxxs off my neighbour.

[Nicos]

Just seen Monty Don cutting off most of his leaves and removing flowers and the growing tip.
Might be worth watching it on iplayer?

[Tripmeup]

I have removed all growing tips and stripped some leaves but generally don't fully stirip them this early... Very slow to ripen this year tho...

[Penellype]

I find (red varieties of) tomatoes go through 4 stages. They start off a dull blueish green when they are small, then progress to a more shiny bright green, then become yellowish then start turning red.

In my experience any tomatoes harvested at the first stage shrivel up and if they turn red at all they are tasteless and dry. If they are harvested when bright green there is a good chance they will turn red in storage, although they could shrivel a little and lose some flavour. Provided blight is not present, anything harvested once it begins to turn yellow should ripen in storage, possibly at the expense of some flavour. As soon as there is any red, ripening in storage is fine unless there is blight.

So, if you want rid of the plants, pick the fruit (on or off the trusses) and bring it in to store. I prefer to leave it where it is until it starts to go red so that there is a s much flavour as possible. I think in general flavour has been lacking this year, probably due to lack of warmth.

[Penellype]

As luck would have it I have the tinyest suspicion of blight on some of my Totem tomatoes this morning. I've cut down the 2 suspects and brought in all of the fruit, which are now on an observation table in my sitting room. If this is blight I would expect some of these fruits to turn brown by tomorrow.

I've arranged the fruit roughly in order of likely ripening, with the most likely on the left. I've thrown out any very small fruit, and I think you can see the difference in colour between those most likely to ripen and those less likely.



This is the crop from 2 bush tomatoes grown outdoors in a quadgrow, about 10 decent sized tomatoes having already been harvested. The reddest tomato is about 2 inches across. There were planty of smaller tomatoes which had no hope of ripening, and still some flowers.

[Shadylane]

I'm leaving ours - they're still going strong and there's plenty of time yet. Ours have kept going into October/November before so unless there's a really harsh frost, I'll be leaving them to get on with it and probably even if there's a harsh frost.

[Penellype]

The rest of mine are still out there ripening slowly. Its just these 2 plants that were possible blight suspects, although the weather here has been a little cool for blight and I am not convinced. Better safe than sorry though.