Pick your Tomatoes at first blush

[bdobs]

Just a tip here.

You can pick Tomatoes at first blush and let them continue their ripening process on your kitchen counter. They will have the same flavor and texture if you had let them ripen completely on the vine.
Anywhere out of direct sunlight is fine

Some benefits of this are...
Don't have to worry about pesky bugs, birds, or disease harming your prized purdy tomato.
Its fun to watch them ripen every day.
Increase your drooling and anticipation for that first bite of your prized fruit.
Less chance of cracking.
When temps get really hot, the pigmentation process in tomatoes shuts down, and some fruits left on the vine in these extreme temps may only get a funky orange red, not the true deep tomato red(of red varieties of course)

Brian

[jasonmolinari]

i've always understood that a tomato only ripens on the vine, increasing its sugars. Off the vine they only redden, not ripen.

[KayakerNC]

Just a tip here.
You can pick Tomatoes at first blush and let them continue their ripening process on your kitchen counter. They will have the same flavor and texture if you had let them ripen completely on the vine.
Anywhere out of direct sunlight is fine
Brian

I've tried ripening on the counter, usually at end of season.
Vine-ripened, in my experience, is ALWAYS better flavored and textured.

[gardendoc]

i've always understood that a tomato only ripens on the vine, increasing its sugars. Off the vine they only redden, not ripen.

It is true that the longer you can keep the 'maters on the vine more photosynthetic goes to the fruit.  But they do ripen on the counter.  Ripening is a physiological process where the fruit softens due to the pectin breaking down between the cells.

[CeaseFire]

http://homecooking.about.com/od/cookingfaqs/f/faqvineripetom.htm

Question: Are vine-ripened tomatoes really ripened on the vine?

Answer: Vine-ripened does not mean they were picked when in full color, as one might assume. It simply means they were left on the vine a tad longer, only long enough to show a minute changing of green to color (known as Stage 2 -- often not even enough to be considered a blush!) at the blossom end.
If you're paying more for vine-ripened, you're not getting much better than those picked when fully green.

[bdobs]

I have done a lot of reading, and experimenting myself, and there is absolutely no difference between them reaching eating stage on the plant, or on my counter.

I'm going to have to disagree with you GardenDoc

Once blush occurs,  the fruit is sealed off from the plant and no nutrients or effects from the plant take place.

Here is one of many articles relating to this.
http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/news/sty/2005/harvest_tomatoes071805.htm

Brian

[gardendoc]

bdobs, this is why the forum is so good, there is always an opportunity to learn new things.  Thanks. 

[bdobs]

We cant always BS, posts jokes and show off our pictures

I made my first home grown salsa of the year last night and it was magnificent!!!

[bdobs]

..and I'll have to admit I dont pick at first blush.  I pick when they are getting close, but not there yet

[CeaseFire]

Well, it's nice to know about the tomato "closing off" after a blush of red and not
really improving -- BUT my husband wants a "vine ripened tomato" and that's
what he's gonna get.    -- tomorrow, in fact (a Brandywine $900 tomato)

[psh]

Thanks for the info. One of my previous employers owned another company that distributed tomatoes. They would get crates of green tomatoes in their warehouse and spray them with the ethylene gas. He said that they start to turn red within a couple of hours.

I've always "rescued" my tomatoes from the birds when they begin to blush. Now I don't feel so bad about not letting them ripen on the vine.

Philip

[LavendulaFleur]

This is really valuable and interesting information!

Thanks for posting it, bdobs!
 

[nolakate]

i had a few tomatoes that kinda fell off at green-there are so many ! on the branch. so i just put them out on the porch rail-a couple were there for 2 full weeks and voila! they ripened nicely, and taste great!

[tag]

Some I let ripen on the vine. This year I didn't have too much problem with pests messing with my tomatoes. Mostly I pick my tomatoes when the are about half way ripe. A few days on the counter and they're ready.

[acanfield]

I have cherry tomatoes growing in clusters.  Would I need to wait for all of the tomatoes to be blushing, or just the first one?  They seem to blush one by one