How do I get tomatoes to turn red?

Question: How do I get tomatoes to turn red? Mine are all green. Am I doing something wrong? – Erika S

Answer: This question can be answered under two different circumstances. First, if you’re trying to get your tomatoes to turn red on the vine there are a few tricks you can try.

The first option is to reduce the amount of water you supply to your tomato plants. This will give the plant a heads up that its season might be coming to an end.

Therefore, it needs to hurry up and ripen its fruit to ensure there are future generations.

The next step to take is ensuring your tomatoes are planted in an area with ample sunlight. Without adequate lighting, it takes longer for fruit to ripen.

Next, ensure you remove any small fruit or blooms on the plant. You want your tomato plant to put all its efforts into ripening the fruit currently growing.

By removing small fruit or blooms, this ensures the plant doesn’t exert too much effort in trying to create more fruit.

Finally, try shifting the roots. You do this by grabbing the base of the tomato plant and gently wiggling it around in the soil.

This shocks the plant which causes the fruit to ripen quicker.

Our second circumstance where you’d wish to ripen your tomatoes would be off the vine. Many times, at the end of a growing season, a frost will arrive while you still have green fruit hanging on your tomato plants.

Instead of letting the frost take your fruit, you may pick the green tomatoes and bring them indoors prior to the cold snap.

Some people enjoy green tomatoes. However, if you’re someone who would like to enjoy red tomatoes, there are a few ways to encourage your tomatoes to ripen.

The first method is to place the tomatoes in a brown paper sack and close it. When tomatoes are in an enclosed location the ethylene they produce stimulates the other tomatoes and encourages ripening.

You can do the same thing by storing tomatoes in a closed brown box. The main thing is the tomatoes are enclosed together but are in a container that still breathes.

Be sure to check your bag or box daily to ensure no rot is occurring. If so, remove the rotten tomatoes and allow the rest to continue growing ripe.

Finally, you may also set your tomatoes on a well-lit windowsill. Ensure you place the fruits stem side down to discourage rot.

In a few days, the tomatoes should ripen and taste wonderful. Again, discard any tomatoes which display signs of rot.

These are a few methods to encourage your tomatoes to ripen whether picked or on the vine. Hopefully, you may utilize this information to enjoy your homegrown tomatoes later in the season.