Ripe, juicy and flavorful tomatoes are the backbone of thousands of recipes from around the world. The quality and degree of ripeness of the tomatoes you use are always important, otherwise the flavor cannot be fully expressed. This is especially true if you are making a salad. If you're growing your own tomatoes or find that the tomatoes you buy aren't ripe, here are a few tips to help them taste better. Find out in our instructions how you can let tomatoes ripen.
Basically how tomatoes ripen
The first thing you need to know is that sunlight is not always helpful. Too much light can actually harden the skin, so avoid putting your tomatoes on the windowsill. When growing tomatoes, don't be tempted to pull the leaves off the plants so they can get more sun.
Tomatoes need warmth to ripen. The warmer a tomato is, the faster it ripens. So putting tomatoes in the fridge doesn't help them at all and can even make their texture too "mealy". However, if the tomatoes get too hot, ripening will stop - another reason not to put them on the windowsill.
Tomatoes, like bananas and avocados, release ethene (or ethylene), a natural plant hormone that regulates a plant's growth and allows it to ripen by converting stored starch into sugar. All fruits do this, and tomatoes are technically a fruit.
How to ripen late tomato varieties
When temperatures drop, there are always a few green tomatoes left on the plants. Here you will find out howgreen tomatoes ripenlet.
Tomato plants bear fruit from June until the first frost and thrive in the warm, bright conditions of summer. However, the ripening process slows as the days become shorter. Therefore, the fruits that develop from September may not ripen before the first frost comes.
Tomatoes ripen fastest in a warm, bright environment. Tomatoes that have ripened “on the vine” are said to have the best flavor, meaning they are picked from the plant after they have ripened. To allow late tomatoes to ripen, it is best to leave them on the plant for as long as possible so that the fruit develops the best flavor. Do not harvest tomatoes for ripening indoors until you have exhausted all efforts to keep them growing on the vine. Check out our tips for ripening tomatoes below.
- In your vegetable patch or greenhouse, remove any remaining flowers from your tomato plants. These have no chance of developing into fruit. Cutting them off now will direct the plant's energy into ripening the existing fruit.
- Your tomato plants should have produced three or four fruit heads by early fall. To ensure all fruit ripens, remove the top portion of each plant. Simply cut the main stem a few leaves above the top green fruit cluster. Removing the leaves from the plant can also ensure that as much light as possible reaches the fruit so that it can ripen.
- After the temperatures have dropped, it's time to harvest the tomatoes and bring them indoors. A tip is to store them in a drawer or paper bag with a banana. The banana releases ethylene, a hormone associated with the ripening of fruits, speeding up the ripening process. Check the drawer or bag regularly and remove ripe tomatoes when you find them.
How to ripen tomatoes in a breathable bag/box
- To speed up the ripening process, all you need to do is seal the ethene gas with the tomatoes by placing them in a paper bag, box, or empty kitchen drawer.
- Add a ripening banana or apple, which also release ethene, to speed up the ripening process.
- The fruits release moisture. So use a bag or box that doesn't allow this moisture to accumulate and keep the tomatoes at a certain distance from each other so that they don't get moldy.
- Very unripe tomatoes usually take a week or two to ripen at higher temperatures (optimal is 18 to 25 degrees Celsius) - check this again and again, as tomatoes ripen at different rates.
- If your kitchen is cold, it will take much longer to ripen. Also pay attention to whether the tomatoesstart to rot, because that affects all other tomatoes.
Some advice suggests putting the tomatoes in a mason jar. However, this retains moisture, which accelerates spoilage.
How can you preserve tomatoes?Find out here!
This is how they ripen in the fruit bowl
If your tomatoes are almost ripe but still need a little time, let them ripen in a fruit bowl. The fruits around them release ethene and help them ripen, and you can keep an eye on them.
When and how should you harvest your tomatoes? Helpful tipsyou can find here!
