Blueaussi
New Member
I've always let my tomatoes ripen on the vine if at all possible. This year the mystery beast that's eating my 'maters has forced me to bring mine inside when they start showing color. Someone posted this article over at Tomatoville, and now I don't feel so bad about having to counter ripen mine.
http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/news/sty/2005/harvest_tomatoes071805.htm
Released: July 18, 2005
At First Blush, Harvest Tomatoes
MANHATTAN, Kan. – When they reach a certain age, tomatoes – Americans’ favorite garden vegetable, which is really a fruit – start acting like teenagers. All they do is hang around. They’re in the throes of suddenly active hormones – which in the tomatoes’ case, produce gas! They’re still attached to their vine, but become totally closed off from its day-to-day operations.
Vegetables guru Chuck Marr says this “adolescent” stage is when tomatoes need to leave the vine. The fruit on plants now growing in home gardens and patio pots is beginning to reach that age.
“Until frost is in the forecast, I recommend always harvesting tomatoes when they show the first blush of red color,” explained Marr, who is the horticulture program leader at Kansas State University Research and Extension. “Tomatoes will ripen off the vine, as well as on.
“Off the vine, however, they’ll have lower odds for cracking or bruising. They won’t touch the ground and rot. Plus, you’ll have some control over the ripening process.”
If stored in a cool 55- to 60-degree basement, for example, tomatoes ripen very slowly, he said. If warmed to 85 degrees, they ripen quickly.
When garden temperatures soar above 95 degrees, indoor-ripened tomatoes also produce better color. Hot weather stops the fruits’ red pigment formation. The result is an odd orange-red.
The ability to ripen indoors or out is unusual in the vegetable world, Marr said. The process is as complex, yet effortless as a teenager’s growth spurt:
* The tomato (fruit) reaches full size while still green.
* It starts to develop a jelly-like material around the seeds and a pale white-green color that has distinct white streaks radiating from the fruit’s blossom end.
* The tomato is now fully formed – “mature green.”
“Tomatoes harvested before they reach the mature green stage won’t ripen to have the flavor or quality of one left on the vine a little longer. That’s why tomatoes you buy in winter can have less flavor. They’ve been picked at a green stage so they can be transported to distant markets. Some experts estimate that more than half of off-season tomatoes may be picked earlier than the mature-green stage,” the horticulturist said.
* Inside mature green tomatoes on the vine, two growth-regulating hormones change dramatically, causing the fruit to start producing ethylene gas. The gas makes the fruit cells age – soften, begin to lose their green and develop red, and produce more ethylene .. and so on.
* At the same time, a layer of cells starts to form across a joint in the stem, about one-half inch above the fruit. These cells will seal off the tomato so no additional materials can move into or from the plant.
“By the time the tomato has its first blush of red color, the layer of cells – called an abcision zone – is complete, and you can pick the tomato with no loss of flavor or quality,” Marr said. “If left on the vine after that, all the tomato will do is hang there, disconnected, going through the rest of the ripening process.”
Despite the important developments that come after tomatoes reach mature green, slightly younger tomatoes can still ripen off the vine, too, the horticulturist said.
“Commercial producers make that happen with ethylene gas. But home gardeners can get much the same effect after a late fall harvest if they simply store the younger tomatoes near those that already are mature green and producing ethylene,” Marr said.
-30-
K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus, Manhattan.
Story by:
Kathleen Ward
kward@oznet.ksu.edu
K-State Research& Extension News
Additional Information:
Chuck Marr is at 785-532-1441
http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/news/sty/2005/harvest_tomatoes071805.htm
Released: July 18, 2005
At First Blush, Harvest Tomatoes
MANHATTAN, Kan. – When they reach a certain age, tomatoes – Americans’ favorite garden vegetable, which is really a fruit – start acting like teenagers. All they do is hang around. They’re in the throes of suddenly active hormones – which in the tomatoes’ case, produce gas! They’re still attached to their vine, but become totally closed off from its day-to-day operations.
Vegetables guru Chuck Marr says this “adolescent” stage is when tomatoes need to leave the vine. The fruit on plants now growing in home gardens and patio pots is beginning to reach that age.
“Until frost is in the forecast, I recommend always harvesting tomatoes when they show the first blush of red color,” explained Marr, who is the horticulture program leader at Kansas State University Research and Extension. “Tomatoes will ripen off the vine, as well as on.
“Off the vine, however, they’ll have lower odds for cracking or bruising. They won’t touch the ground and rot. Plus, you’ll have some control over the ripening process.”
If stored in a cool 55- to 60-degree basement, for example, tomatoes ripen very slowly, he said. If warmed to 85 degrees, they ripen quickly.
When garden temperatures soar above 95 degrees, indoor-ripened tomatoes also produce better color. Hot weather stops the fruits’ red pigment formation. The result is an odd orange-red.
The ability to ripen indoors or out is unusual in the vegetable world, Marr said. The process is as complex, yet effortless as a teenager’s growth spurt:
* The tomato (fruit) reaches full size while still green.
* It starts to develop a jelly-like material around the seeds and a pale white-green color that has distinct white streaks radiating from the fruit’s blossom end.
* The tomato is now fully formed – “mature green.”
“Tomatoes harvested before they reach the mature green stage won’t ripen to have the flavor or quality of one left on the vine a little longer. That’s why tomatoes you buy in winter can have less flavor. They’ve been picked at a green stage so they can be transported to distant markets. Some experts estimate that more than half of off-season tomatoes may be picked earlier than the mature-green stage,” the horticulturist said.
* Inside mature green tomatoes on the vine, two growth-regulating hormones change dramatically, causing the fruit to start producing ethylene gas. The gas makes the fruit cells age – soften, begin to lose their green and develop red, and produce more ethylene .. and so on.
* At the same time, a layer of cells starts to form across a joint in the stem, about one-half inch above the fruit. These cells will seal off the tomato so no additional materials can move into or from the plant.
“By the time the tomato has its first blush of red color, the layer of cells – called an abcision zone – is complete, and you can pick the tomato with no loss of flavor or quality,” Marr said. “If left on the vine after that, all the tomato will do is hang there, disconnected, going through the rest of the ripening process.”
Despite the important developments that come after tomatoes reach mature green, slightly younger tomatoes can still ripen off the vine, too, the horticulturist said.
“Commercial producers make that happen with ethylene gas. But home gardeners can get much the same effect after a late fall harvest if they simply store the younger tomatoes near those that already are mature green and producing ethylene,” Marr said.
-30-
K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus, Manhattan.
Story by:
Kathleen Ward
kward@oznet.ksu.edu
K-State Research& Extension News
Additional Information:
Chuck Marr is at 785-532-1441
