[benjamin2222]

Is anyone else having problems with their tomatoes ripening??We have lots and LOTS of Marmande fruit on our plants but none of them seem to be ripening and turning red yet. The fruit are all quite large and have been on the plants now for about four weeks and I don't know whether I should leave them to hopefully ripen by themselves or take them off the plants and use the old banana trick i've been reading so much about!!!
This is my first year on an allotment and any advice would be gratefully received.

[BobE]

Ive three plants in my GH, all with green healthy fruits on.  There is another few weeks of summer yet for them to ripen.  So just wait a bit. 
If it all goes pear shaped (sic) there are a lot of green tomatoe recipes around.
A dark drawer with a banana in is a way forward, but not yet.
One final thing, as they ripen try to leave them on as long as you can, this helps the others to ripen.  So only pick a few at a time.

[benjamin2222]

Thank you for your advice its much appreciated

[smellykipper]

im also having the same problem, a few that have been knocked off by the kids have all turned red now by just placing them on the shelf in the pollytunnel.

Daz

[barley]

same here loads of green toms - taking ages to ripen

must be the weather this year

will have to look up a recipe for green tom chutney 

[Beetroot Queen]

We are only having problems with the poly toms, outdoor are doing great, one of the old boys said the poly is too hot. Is that possible

[Headgardener22]

My tomatoes started ripening earlier this year than previous years, (Mid July rather than mid August) despite sowing them later. Could it just be that the season is longer and so some tomatoes came earlier so the other feel like they're not ripening?

[Sparkyrog]

We are only having problems with the poly toms, outdoor are doing great, one of the old boys said the poly is too hot. Is that possible

Yes 

[Headgardener22]

We are only having problems with the poly toms, outdoor are doing great, one of the old boys said the poly is too hot. Is that possible

Yes 

I know that if the polytunnel gets too hot it stops the fruit setting (anything above 30C and there will be problems) but I didn't know anything about fruit not ripening. Have you any references? My tunnel keeps going above 35C despite the doors being full open.

[Sparkyrog]

Sorry nothing in print ! Just going by my own experiences ,I no longer put toms in the PT ! they stay in the GH or outside 

[mumofstig]

This explains ripening and temperature (sorry it uses fahrenheit rather than celsius  )
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/tomatoesnotripening.html

[smellykipper]

should we keep feeding them or just water them ? , one thing i do know is when they ripen, we are going to have 100s maybe 1000s of toms 

[Headgardener22]

This explains ripening and temperature (sorry it uses fahrenheit rather than celsius  )
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/tomatoesnotripening.html

Thanks for that. Makes temperaturecontrol even more important!

[maggiemay]

Re green tomatoes.I have poly tunnel and green house all ripening well , use less water and loosen soil around roots ,

[smellykipper]

all six of my plants  are still very green