Green tomatoes: 3 tips to make them ripen very easily!

Ripe red tomatoes are the ones we appreciate for their sweet taste. But the process that leads to this coloring is complex. Once autumn sets in, tomatoes have a much harder time ripening, especially if they are not grown in a greenhouse. However, it's possible to speed things up without getting all naked to make them blush. Let's see in this article how to ripen your green tomatoes!

1. Sort the fruits and prune your plants to make them ripen faster!

In late summer or early fall, many plants in your vegetable garden still bear fruit, but these often no longer ripen due to the shorter days. This is due to the drop in temperature (especially at night!) and low solar radiation. To successfully ripen your tomatoes, you first need to sort them, because unfortunately not all tomatoes will be able to ripen naturally. If daytime temperatures hardly exceed 15 degrees (generally around the end of September, at home in Belgium), I start sorting the fruits and plants. Here are some simple rules that I apply:

• I remove all the plants which seem tired to me, at the end of production, too small or whose leaves are yellowing. To do this, I simply cut at the base and leave the roots in the soil so that they enrich it with nitrogen.
• On the plants that remain in place, I only leave the largest tomatoes which have a healthy appearance and appear to me to be intact. If they have mold or cracks, I throw them in the compost;
• I cut a few leaves and branches (not all) to encourage sunlight to the plant taking care to disinfect my pruning shears each time I prune another plant (to avoid transmitting mildew). To disinfect, no need for alcohol since I pass the blade of my pruning shears under a lighter for a few seconds.

As you will have understood, this first tip consists of providing your tomatoes with maximum light and heat. Another possibility is to boost the temperature by placing a heat source next to your plants. For example, some place a plastic sheet over the tomato plants to create a greenhouse effect. 

2. Do not water any more (or very little) the tomato plants

Another important thing to do if you want to speed up the ripening process of your fruit is to . This is because your tomato plants will need plenty of water during the summer months as flowers and fruit form. However, depriving the plants of water will stress them just enough to encourage them to ripen fruit more quickly. Yes, all this is only a question of survival since the goal of the plant once stressed will then be to produce seeds as quickly as possible to ensure offspring. 

3. Place apples or bananas at the base of the plants

Did you know that apples or bananas can help ripen your green tomatoes? Amazing isn't it? And yet, there is indeed a scientific explanation for this! The ripening process can be boosted by the addition of fruits which emit a ripening gas called ethylene. To speed up the ripening process using bananas or apples, simply place them at the foot of the tomato plants in the vegetable garden. 

Bonus: how to ripen them once picked?

Frost is forecast overnight and you have no other choice than to pick your tomatoes very quickly to avoid losing the entire remaining harvest? Once you have picked your green tomatoes, you have two options:

• Place your fruit on a sunny windowsill (ideally facing south) and hope that they are ripe enough to turn red. In general, this only works with tomatoes that are starting to turn yellow or orange in color.
• Wrap your tomatoes in newspaper or cardboard and place an apple or banana inside (see step 3).

If this didn't work for you, you can always try green tomato jam. From the looks of it, it's good, but I've never tried it yet!

Some additional tips in video

André Abrahami shot a short video to explain to you why tomatoes stay green. This is an excellent complement to this article if you have a few minutes to spare!