The right time to harvest tomatoes is crucial to ensure you get the best harvest for your summer salads. If you harvest tomatoes too early they will become hard and bitter, if you leave them hanging too long they may burst, rot or be eaten by birds. To obtain the best-tasting garden tomatoes, one should not generalize, as harvest time varies from tomato variety to tomato variety and, to some extent, local climate and tomato care. Sometimes the best way to determine the right time to harvest tomatoes is through trial and error. What's more, when and how you harvest your tomatoes can also have a significant impact on the yield of your plants.
When can you harvest tomatoes?
Tomatoes ripen at different times depending on weather conditions and variety. Cherry tomatoes, for example, ripen faster than larger tomato varieties, and cold weather can affect how early in the season the vegetable begins to ripen. However, there are some clear signs that garden tomatoes are ready to harvest, and noticing them will also help you harvest tomato seeds for new plants next year.
- Deep red color
A deep red tomato is ready for harvest. The deeper the color, the higher the sugar content of the tomato and the sweeter it tastes. Just remember that a deep red tomato is ripe and needs to be eaten quickly.
- Test whether the tomatoes are hard
When you squeeze a tomato, it gives a little when it's ripe and feels hard when it's not yet ready to harvest.
- Fantastic smell
If your tomato smells wonderful, it's probably time to harvest it.
- Tomatoes are easy to remove from the plant
As with other fruits and vegetables, the ease with which a tomato separates from the main plant is a good indicator of whether it is ready to harvest. Take a ripe-looking tomato between three fingers and gently pull. If she breaks away (or shows signs that she wants to), she is mature. However, we do not recommend harvesting the tomatoes this way if you are sure that they are ripe!
The ideal time
To know when is the best time to harvest your tomatoes, you need to know how a tomato ripens and ripens while it's still on the plant. As soon as a tomato starts to growfrom green to slightly pink, it no longer absorbs nutrients from the plant. This is the so-called breaking stage of the tomato. Once a tomato has reached this stage, it will continue to ripen on the vine without any problems and it is actually better for the tomato and the plant to harvest it early. And for a whole host of reasons. First and foremost, an early harvest will help keep your garden tomatoes looking fantastic and free of blemishes. The longer a tomato hangs on the vine, the greater the risk of it being damaged by insects and animals. The riper a tomato is, the more likely it is to be attacked by pests.
The ideal time to harvest is when the tomato has reached about half of its final color. Additionally, if tomatoes stay on the vine longer, they have a greater chance of developing sunspots and blemishes. The longer the tomato sits, the more likely it is to fall from the pole to the ground in a storm or wind, causing even larger bruises.
If you plant your tomatoes at the beginning of theHarvest ripeness, the weight of your tomato vines also remains manageable. In mid-summer, a fully loaded tomato plant can become quite heavy. Unfortunately, this can cause branches to split and break. This can not only injure the tomatoes, but also reduce the yield.
Until when can you harvest tomatoes?
You should harvest any remaining tomatoes, ripe or not, before temperatures drop below 7°C. Otherwise, the fruit will be lost to the cold, so it's best to try to let the remaining harvest ripen indoors. Completely green fruits do not ripen indoors. Tomatoes go from a dull green to a shiny green before turning their final color. Shiny green garden tomatoes will eventually ripen indoors, especially if they are stored near an ethylene-producing fruit like bananas.
How to harvest tomatoes?
The best way to harvest tomatoes is with sharp, clean secateurs. This allows you to make clean cuts that heal quickly.To harvest, cutCut each tomato close to the tip without cutting into the fruit. Try as much as possiblecut off from the stem.
How to store tomatoes
- Do not put in the refrigerator
Never put fresh garden tomatoes in the refrigerator. This causes them to lose their typical taste.
- Freeze
To freeze, core fresh, unblemished tomatoes and place them whole in freezer bags or containers. The skin can be removed when thawing. And how you can dry garden tomatoesfind out here.
- Tomatoes ripen – tip
Tomatoes have been shown to ripen best when stored in a cool, shady place. The ideal temperature for ripening is around 18 to 21 degrees. The tomatoes also need plenty of air circulation to speed up the ripening process.
