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How to ripen tomatoes. Keep your tomatoes on the vine for as long as possible, increasing as much light and warmth to the developing fruits as possible. Inside, there are a few tactics to employ to speed up the ripening process – see our list of tomato ripening tips, below.
- BBC Gardeners' World Magazine
- 3 min
- Pinch off the top of the plant. If you’re only a few weeks away from the first frost and still see a fair amount of green tomatoes on the vine, the best way to promote faster ripening is to pinch off (cut) the top of your tomato plant.
- Induce stress. One easy way to encourage tomatoes to ripen faster is to induce stress. If tomato plants sense that their survival is at stake, they’ll speed up the maturation of their fruits to produce seed and create the next generation of plants.
- Try root pruning. Another easy way to induce stress is via root pruning, which interrupts the plant’s growth cycle. This special technique hampers the plant’s absorption of water and sends out distress signals, telling it to hurry up and ripen the tomatoes it’s produced.
- Ripen tomatoes indoors with a bit of apple peel. If a sudden early frost has you bringing in all your unripe tomatoes indoors, you can speed up ripening by placing your tomatoes in brown paper bags (loosely and in single or double layers, not piled heavily on top of each other) with a bit of fresh apple peel inside.
- Paper Bag Method. To ripen green tomatoes, place them in a closed paper bag and store them in a warm location. By keeping the tomatoes together, the ethylene they emit will promote ripening.
- Box Method. If you have multiple green tomatoes that you want to ripen, a cardboard box can be a useful tool. Place the tomatoes in the box, making sure they do not touch each other.
- The Windowsill Approach. Try this method if your tomatoes have already started to show some ripened color: simply place them on a windowsill that receives sunlight.
- Hanging Upside Down Method. Some gardeners pull up the entire plant – roots, fruits, and all – and hang it upside down in a location indoors. The theory is that the plant, while alive, will send all its available energy to the fruit.
Sep 2, 2024 · I’m going to share how to ripen tomatoes at the end of the season – both on and off the vine – and a couple of my favourite ways to use up green tomatoes that will make you look at them in a whole new light!
- In The Sun. Place them in the window sill in mild sun. I place emphasis on mild because heat causes fruits to ripen very quickly, and leaving your tomatoes in the hot sun can compromise them in two ways: it toughens their skin and puts them at risk of rotting.
- In A Bag. Just like ripening bananas, you can put them in a bag. If there’s only a handful of tomatoes that you need to ripen fast, place them inside a paper bag.
- In a Box. Harvest and store the greens in a cardboard box. If you grow tomatoes in your own garden, leave them on the vine as long as you can to ripen fully, weather permitting.
- Uproot and Hang. Alternatively, you can pull up the entire plant/s, roots, stems and all, and hang them upside down in an area protected from the cold – such as your garage.
Sep 18, 2009 · Different Methods. There are several ways to ripen tomatoes indoors: Placing a ripening banana or apple in an enclosed bag with green tomatoes helps them to ripen as the fruit releases ethylene.
Jul 18, 2023 · Ripening is the transformation process that gives tomatoes their signature red appearance and their sweet, fresh flavor. When a tomato fruit ripens, the green chlorophyll of the tomato breaks down and red color pigments come to the surface.
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