I think it is impossible to surprise someone with the fact that tomatoes are often plucked unripe. And then put on ripening.
What about the degree of ripeness
Offer to deal with the degree of ripeness of tomatoes:
- Milk occurs when tomatoes reach an average size for their variety (or slightly larger), but have a greenish or whitish color.
- brown ripeness is also called blanching for the uneven coloring of tomatoes, pigmentation will end completely in a week and a half (intensively manifests itself on unripe dark tomatoes, elongated fruits);
- pink color or cream for yellow - a transitional stage from brown to technical maturation, to which 5-6 days remain.
When harvesting, I always focus on the degree of ripeness. In the greenhouse I try to pluck all the pink and cream fruits, by the way, they do not burst when blanched, they look beautiful in the jar, they remain plump.
On the street I tear off the brown ones, I spread them on the terrace or at home on the windowsill. Today I’ll tell you how to harvest, how to ripen it.
Features of the collection of tomatoes
Based on personal experience, mistakes made, I made a few rules for myself:
- Tomatoes collected under the bright sun wither faster and soon lose their presentation. Harvest every 5-7 days, depending on the weather.
- In open ground, it is advisable to remove all the fruits when at night the temperature begins to drop to +5 ° C. On the bush, I leave only a trifle on the upper color branches. If there is time, I wrap each crown with covering material. If it is possible to make temporary shelter from the cold and rains, you can leave the tomatoes to ripen on the branches.
- From diseased bushes, even the whole fruits are stacked separately. Phytophthora is insidious, does not immediately appear on the fruits. Tomatoes with spots from condensate, insect excrement for long-term storage, too, should not be cleaned.
- I cut off part of the crop for long ripening with brushes, I immediately put them in cardboard boxes in only one layer (I pick up containers in the winter at a nearby store, milk is packed in it, baby food).
- I put the fruits in shallow pails so as not to damage the ripe ones.
If a tomato breaks off with a sepal, I don’t specially cut it off. Fruits from many large varieties fall on their own.
Features of storage and ripening
When the greenhouse was small, for one year all the tomatoes were kept in hot water before being laid. Then I realized that healthy fruits do not need such a temperature. Heat treatment in a solution of potassium permanganate is only suspicious. I dispense them only at home, on window sills, so that the light kills the surviving bacteria.
I put the rest without sorting into boxes, large bowls, pour them onto trays. One year sorted by maturity. I spent a lot of time, but the effect was not impressive: they still could not be used simultaneously. Since then, unnecessary work makes it difficult for myself.
I arrange the container and containers filled in two, at most three rows, wherever possible: under furniture, on shelves in the pantry, on cabinets.
When I have time from old newspapers I make paper pads. But even without them, tomatoes do not interfere with each other. If there were no phytophthora or other fungal diseases in the greenhouse before the mass gathering, there are no rotten ones at all, only they are sober, soft, when you do not check the container in time.
1/3 of the harvested crop is usually put away on a glazed balcony, in seedling cans. I put them in tiers, on the floor, in a row on a shelf. Perfectly lie to frosts. Then I bring the unripened leftovers into the apartment, scatter them on the empty trays, boxes.
I tightly cover the tomatoes with a cloth, each container and box separately. I use scraps of old bedding, put them in several layers. I definitely recommend to cover the crop, otherwise thrushes are tortured. Flies even penetrate into closed boxes, and the fabric layer for them is an excellent barrier.
Every 4-5 days I check to see if there are any spoiled tomatoes, I choose ripe fruits.
I tried to harvest part of the crop in the basement, the tomatoes lay well before the New Year, there was little rot. But I didn’t want to eat them fresh, the appearance was so-so, and taste qualities too. The experiment with the refrigerator ended similarly. But how they interfered! Now I put in a container for vegetables only ripened tomatoes in other places in the apartment.
I noticed that:
- tomatoes are sung faster if you toss a couple of apples to them, even when the apples are next to a box of tomatoes, the fruits reach technical ripeness faster;
- in the light they become flabby faster;
- at home tomatoes spit much faster than on the balcony.
I tried to ripen the tomatoes in bags, hung them on the balcony and in the pantry. Admittedly, getting ripe fruits from cans and boxes is much easier. And then, you can’t protect yourself from condensation in the bags when you notice moisture, put several paper towels in each bag.
I would be glad if my experience is useful to you. Good luck to everyone!
