How can you help tomatoes ripen? Don’t put them on the windowsill

The end of summer is slowly approaching, and with it comes relatively rainy weather. At this time of year, a fairly large number of tomatoes are ripening in our vegetable patches. However, not all of them actually manage to ripen. Many remain green for a very long time, or their colour turns a lighter shade. Often, though, they fail to ripen at all. That’s one reason why it’s worth giving your tomatoes a little helping hand. No, there’s no need to pick them straight away and put them on the windowsill. There’s another rather interesting alternative, which we’ll look at in this article.

Shock treatment pays off

Definitely. Quite simply, tomatoes need a mild shock, which perfectly stimulates the plant to operate in a slightly different mode and a little faster. All you need to do is take a sharp knife, or alternatively a spade, and about 10 cm from the plant’s stem itself, make a deep, narrow trench – ideally about 20 cm deep. This will disrupt the tomato’s roots, which in turn will cause the plant to switch to a different mode.

Photo: Radek Stepan

The shock accelerates the ripening of tomatoes

The tomatoes will go into a mild state of shock, causing the plant to behave slightly differently. The shock sort of stimulates it to speed up the ripening of the individual fruits. All the energy will go into them. It’s worth trying this method on at least one plant. It works a treat, though. We use it ourselves, as you can see from the photos.

Tip: Do you eat cracked tomatoes? Sometimes it can be a bit of a gamble.

Leave ripening at home until later

It’s worth trying the method mentioned first. Once the tomatoes are later on in the colder winter months and often affected by mould, they need to be picked. Leave them to ripen in a wooden crate in a dark, dry room. Don’t stack them in a single layer, nor on top of one another, nor in a way that squashes them in any way. If you add apples – which produce ethylene – to the tomatoes, you’re all set. They’ll ripen comfortably and gradually.

Sources: Author, Meta, tojenapad.dobrenoviny.sk

Preview photo and gallery: Radek Stepan