Hello, everyone!
Earlier this year, my wife and I installed two raised beds, mixed up some great soil, and planted various fruits and vegetables. So much to learn, but it’s been fun!
One of the things we planted is a Bonnie Plants Better Bush tomato. I can’t believe how good they taste! So now I find myself being sucked down the Tomato Growing rabbit hole… I’ve been learning a lot from the posts here.
In the Dallas-area, temps are all over the place: 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s at night, and 70’s and high-80’s during the day – it’s supposed to hit 90 today. But we did get down in the lower-40’s for several days at one point.
I have 4 plum-sized tomatoes left out there, but they haven’t changed in size, color, or firmness in a couple of weeks. In anticipation of the end of the season, I pruned off a few “branches” of the plant with no fruit in hopes that the plant could focus its energy on these branches (maybe that was a bad idea). Anyway, I have a couple of questions:
(1) Will these eventually grow and/or ripen if I wait longer, or did the low-40’s temps cause them to stall out somehow? Is it normal for them to stop growing or take a long time to ripen like that?
(2) When you look at the picture I’ve attached, does the plant seem healthy? Is there anything you see that I might be missing with regard to what it may need?
by ElvisFlab
11 Comments
Plant looks good n healthy to me. As long as there is no frost or freeze, they should ripen eventually
Looks healthy
Keep an eye on the forecast. You want to watch the overnight lows. As long as it stays above 32, you can leave your tomato plants alone and let them do their thing.
You could also allow the temps to go under 32 degrees, but you will want to cover them with blankets. It depends on how far below 32 and for how long.
If you are ending the season because of an upcoming freeze, you can pick all green tomatoes. Throw out any that have a defect. Those will mold before they ripen and the liquid sludge will harm other tomatoes.
Put the green tomatoes on a tray or in a container. They will ripen over time. It might be a couple weeks or a couple months but most of them will eventually ripen.
You put the tomatoes on something because they turn to moldy sludge if their is a defect in the tomato.
Have you fertilized your soil at all since the beginning of your season? Fruiting plants need a lot of nutrients and you’d think the fresh soil is enough but sometimes I think this is a beginners biggest mistake not knowing how much or how to fertilize. Either with compost, or purchased fertilizer for fruiting/vegetables.
Yeah as the temps cool down some your progress will slow down as well. Wait until first blush and then pick the fruit, which will allow for good indoor ripening as well as letting the plant now focus on the rest of the fruits.
check the seed packet or plant info, but its probably around 120 days from sprout to ripe fruit, so you may just need to wait a little while for the tomatoes to ripen. they look great! happy gardening!
Looks healthy. I’m impatient and I’d make fried green tomatoes.
Nj here. I had horrible tomatoes all summer but since mid September we have been loaded up. Idk what happened this year
Id wait and allow them to fruit unless you’re into fried green tomatoes.
You can allow temps down to or close to 32 (in my zone 32 is already too low sometimes before the ground will frost and the plants will frost before then. I don’t think it’s as humid in Dallas so you shouldn’t have the same issues.) they will need cover to protect the fruits at low temps.
They may need fertilizer to finish ripening. The cool temps can prevent fruit from ripening too. But again, unless you want fried green tomatoes just wait and cover
It’s normal for them to get to full size and then take a long time (“forever”) to ripen. It’s even normal during spring/early-summer growing season; more so now that there is less daylight. Even though the temps are similar to spring, the days are shorter and the angle of the sun is different. Everything grows slower. I’m in NE Texas, above Dallas and have a few large tomatoes that I talk to every day, trying to convince them to hurry up and turn pink. But they refuse to rush; they insist on taking their good time.
You have the right idea regarding pruning to focus the plants energy on the existing fruit. I’d also remove any blossoms that definitely won’t have time to grow and ripen. Fertilizer at this time of the year would just encourage more growth, which you aren’t looking for right now.
Plants don’t know you don’t know …