It happens that the tomatoes have not yet ripened, but they already need to be harvested. Is it possible to get something edible from them? You can, and not only edible, but even tasty. I tried and now I want to share my experience.
Why do you need to harvest unripe tomatoes?
The main reasons for harvesting unripe fruits are:
- Variety error. We bought a bag of seeds without looking, but the variety turned out to be late-ripening and does not have time to ripen by autumn. This happens all the time. I myself have been so mistaken more than once, especially when I undertook to experiment and planted non-zoned varieties.
- Everything is correct with the variety, but the cold comes ahead of time. It is pointless to leave the fruits on the bush under frost: they will die. But pick green and leave to ripen, you can already.
- Care error. They didn’t pinch off extra shoots, they didn’t form a bush - well, by autumn there can be a lot of tomatoes on it, but only everything will be green.
- Planted too late. It was a cold spring, there was no time to deal with seedlings - as a result, the fruits do not have time to ripen by the autumn cold.
What to do with green fruits?
First of all, they must be plucked if rains and colds come. Unlike cucumbers, tomatoes can simply be torn with your hands - carefully so as not to damage the branch, gently twisting the fruit.
After that, they must be collected in boxes or boxes, laid on a soft base (I usually use straw or crumpled paper) and covered with insect paper. The boxes must be placed in a warm room. At 20 degrees, the fruits ripen perfectly.
A little trick: if you need to get seeds (and I grow not only F1 hybrids, but also varietal bushes), the largest fruits should be placed on the windowsill. There they will ripen not only under the influence of heat, but also sunlight.
What kind of tomatoes can be harvested?
Depending on the degree of maturity, the fruits are divided into three types:
- Completely green. They are not suitable for salad, you just can’t eat them with salt - but there are recipes where they are needed.
- Blange. Light green-orange color. The best thing for dospying in the warmth. In principle, you can eat them (I tried - and they go well with scrambled eggs and tomatoes).
- Fully mature. These are not stored at all and do not ripen. Keeping them makes sense only to obtain seeds.
Blange ripens in a matter of days, but green ones need weeks and even months. But they do not deteriorate and do not rot during storage.
Where to store?
For ripening, tomatoes need the following conditions:
- Temperature from 20 to 25 degrees.
- No direct sunlight.
- Low humidity.
I usually put boxes of green tomatoes on a closet in the room: it's dark, dry, and warm there.
Little tricks
For the speedy ripening of green tomatoes, it is often recommended to do rather strange things. Something I tried and now share the results:
- Illumination with a phytolamp. Tried - ripen no faster than without it.
- Putting in one box with bananas - they say, a ripe banana releases substances that accelerate ripening. Tried - doesn't work. But with ripe apples it happened. The main thing is to change the apples in time, not allowing them to rot.
- Falling asleep with sawdust. Tried - works, but no better than storage in straw or paper.
- Putting a couple of ripe tomatoes in a box with green tomatoes (apparently, according to the principle: “Look, this is a ripe tomato. He is good. Be like him!"). Tried - doesn't work. They ripen no faster than without ripe fruits.
- Place the boxes in a dark cellar for half a day, and then let them ripen in the light. Tried. Oddly enough, it works.
- Digging up bushes with roots, hanging them upside down in a dark and dry room. It also works, I recommend this method for small fruits.
Conclusion
Before I learned about the methods of ripening tomatoes, I was consistently losing up to 10% of the crop - what to do, we have a northern area, the latest fruits do not ripen. However, I do not consider myself a great connoisseur of gardening, and if you know other ways to ripen green fruits, I ask you to share them.
Read also: The leaves of sweet pepper are all in holes. Reasons and solution
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