[MickyB]

Will the green tomatoes that are left on my plants in the greenhouse ripen if I leave them? I have left them a few days but not much seems to be happening now the sun has stopped coming out to play.

Any suggestions for using green tomatoes, something that I could store would be ideal.

And finally is it OK to compost the old plants?

[strider84]

You can take the unripe tomatoes off the plant either put them in a sunny window sill or next to bananas.

Plants are ok to compost providing they are disease free.

If you wanted to use green tomatoes in a recipe rather than waiting for them to ripen then green tomato chutney is nice.

[JayG]

Green tomatoes will ripen well indoors in the warm if they have gone beyond the small (for the variety,) hard, and very green stage (preferably at least starting to turn yellow which is the stage before orange/red.)

That does take a bit of experience to get right every time, so if in doubt start Gurgling tomato chutney recipes. 

[PudsTree]

I ripen my tomatoes (the larger varieties like Alicante) indoors from the end of August onwards. They ripen on a windowsill perfectly every time.

I pick them when they are lightish red / pink. They take about three days to ripen.

The result is that the remaining ones on the tomato plants grow quicker and ripen quicker. I have tried this over several years and I reckon I get twice the crop using this method.

Around now the ones outside on the plant won't ripen anymore so I'll soon take all of them indoors to ripen.

[MickyB]

Thanks for the tips, some have just started to change colour so I will try them on the window sill, the rest I will try as chutney - never tried it before so looking forward to giving it a go.

[lazza]

Don't be too hasty in making chutney! The last two years I have picked all remaining tomatoes the 1st week of October when the nights start getting cold and the tomatoes start to burst! I put them in bowls on a sunny windowsill with over-ripe bananas...and last year I was still eating ripened tomatoes in early November, with at least 80% of the green ones eventually ripening. This year, I reckon even more will ripen, and we're getting a large handful of newly ripe toms each day at the moment.

This (6 October):



to this (14 October):



(and for the record, all the toms in the 2nd picture are from the bowls of green tomatoes in the first pic)

[barley]

I've always put mine indoors but in a dark draw - they ripen perfect

don't know how it works but it does 

[J_B]

put in it a basket , cover with a news paper and it will ripen, u can put a banana there since the ethanol the banana gives otu helps the ripening process

[lazza]

I use bananas too. As the skins ripen, they give out ethylene (not ethanol), which is a trigger to the tomatoes to ripen. (In fact, I think they use ethylene gas to help ripen bananas after shipment of the unripe fruit before putting in the supermarket).

[carlrmj]

   
   I had 100's of green tomatoes.

  I've put them in the front (south facing bedroom) where they are slowly ripening

 

[Kristen]

The result is that the remaining ones on the tomato plants grow quicker and ripen quicker. I have tried this over several years and I reckon I get twice the crop using this method.

I'm surprised to hear that as I would have expected that leaving the ripe fruit on the plant would provide a source of Ethylene which should hasten the ripening of the unripe fruits on the plants.

I think the fruits taste sweeter if ripened on the plant, but that may be my brain fooling my taste buds!.  Either way at the end of the season its not an option, so just not sure about doing this in, say, August.

[polly nator]

Mine are still happily ripening outdoors on the plants up in North Yorkshire and no sign of blight either.

[Yorkie]

Mine are still happily ripening outdoors on the plants up in North Yorkshire and no sign of blight either.

Sssssshhhhhhh!!

Don't want to jinx it now, do you?