Are they still green in September? The plastic bag trick for ripening tomatoes really works

You look at your tomatoes in the garden and realise that most of them are still green. Not exactly pleasant, given that the end of the season is slowly approaching and many plants are already affected by mould. For this reason, it’s definitely worth giving the tomatoes a little help as they ripen. A very interesting trick involves using a plastic bag, which helps the tomatoes ripen more quickly. How does it work? We’ll reveal that to you below, and we’ll also look at some other tricks.

All you need are ordinary plastic bags

That really is all you need. Simply place the plastic bags directly over the tomatoes themselves. Tie them to the plant with string so that the bag fits snugly over the fruit. Thanks to this method, the tomatoes will ripen sooner. In about 4 days, the tomatoes should start to turn red, and the process should be complete in 7 days. By then, the tomatoes will be perfectly red, just as we want them to be, of course. The process itself will be even faster if some of the tomatoes are already reddish or even completely red.

Photo: Radek Stepan

Tomatoes in egg cartons

If you want to speed up the ripening of tomatoes in another way, you can simply place them in egg cartons. Simply pick the green tomatoes, place them in the cartons and leave them to ripen at a temperature of around 20 degrees Celsius. In a few days, the tomatoes should start to turn red; once this happens, they’ll be fully ripe.

Tip: Is it worth leaving all tomatoes to ripen? The answer is surprising.

With apples in a large jar

The ideal method is to place unripe tomatoes in a jar together with a ripe apple. The apple will release ethylene, which will speed up the ripening of the tomatoes themselves. They should ripen within a week without any major problems. That is, provided they aren’t affected by mould. If they are, the mould will naturally spread and the tomatoes will then be unusable.

Sources: Author, Meta

Photo and photogallery: Radek Stepan