Ripening Toms (again).

[Bigmallly]

At last, after trying several methods of ripening toms with slow results I have finally found the perfect conditions. I have a tall freezer sat under wall units with a gap between the freezer & the units to take a large seed tray. So with the toms in the tray, I put an apple & a chilli to hopefully speed up the process. Not only is it dark but also very warm & am getting daily results. I have no idea why I felt the need to share this, I think it's down to all of the failures I have had...........

[emielou5]

Hi there. Have you tried ripening tomatoes by popping them in a bag with a banana (and not just because of your photo)? Works for me, I'm going to give your method a go though, only with little toms mind as the gap above my freezer's pretty skinny.

[Bigmallly]

Yes, I've tried bananas, I've tried kitchen drawers with slow success. It may the combination of dark & warm that has helped. I read somewhere that apples could also be used so I thought what the heck, I've nowt to lose.

[Tomatoking]

That's a great idea Mally , I think I will give it a go with my last few tomatoes that I will pick off today.

[Croila]

That's interesting ... DARK and warm ..? I have an icecream tub of unripe tomatoes I picked just sitting on my kitchen worktop and they ripened okay. My kitchen's pretty warm, but I didn't know they should have gone in the dark.

This is them when I picked them on 23 October, see, pretty green:

Tatties the size of marbles and green tomatoes by croila, on Flickr

And this is them on 9 November after just sitting in the tub in my kitchen, can't believe I nearly chucked them out:

Colour-9 by croila, on Flickr

Just wondering if I'd kept them dark would they have ripened much quicker ..?

[Bigmallly]

Problem Solved

Got up this morning to give my toms their daily check..........they'd all gone............even the apple................the only thing left was the chilli..............I did hear strange noise last night but thought it was the neighbours.......anyhows it looks like I've either got a climbing rat or a squirrel at the back of the freezer & I ain't brave enough to have a look. Needless to say a squirrel trap has been ordered.