Ripening late tomatos with bananas

[George.com]

At the end of April I still have some late green tomatos out on my vines. I want to ripen them before frosts arrive so I took some in recently that had just started to get some colour and put them in a paper bag with a ripening banana. Within a few days the tomatos had ripened. Bananas emit ethylene gas, pears or apples can also be used. I have dark green ones in bags at the moment ripening. Well worth doing for ripening late season tomatos if your autumn sun is rapidly dissappearing but you want to make the most of a long summers crop. I have been enjoying tomatos for 4 months now.

rob

[The Cook]

Banana is not needed. I pick the mature tomatoes at the end of the season, just before the first frost is announced. Toss any with imperfections. Wrap each in newspaper and store a few layers in a box. I seem to remember that we put ours in the garage. Frost in November and we had tomatoes in January. We went through the box at least once a week and took out the ripe ones and tossed any that were going bad.

Some people pull the whole plant and hang it upside down in a garage.

[Billy]

I've tried it, with no apparent difference in ripening from just stored tomatoes.

[Steve]

OTH, I've seen dramatic results putting bananas near apples. The bananas ripen significantly faster than ones from the same bunch stored away from the apples.

[Charlie]

There you are! I feared they took you to the Reeducation Center. ;-)

[Mary Fisher]

When I pull out all the old tomato plants I pick off ALL the fruit no matter what sizeor colour. I put the vines in a basket and daily pick over the fruit and select the ripened ones. The pile becomes smaller and smaller, the last fruit are always eaten Chrismas Eve with our stand pie. Many are still very small but it's tradition!

Mary

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[Steve]

Reeducation? Wouldn't that imply that I was educated to begin with? I'm from California, in case you forgot. ;-)

So nope, just busy. It's trout season, the garden had to be tended to, we're shopping for a new puppy, oh...and sometimes they like me to show up to the "office" (it gives everyone a chance to practice looking busy).

Hope all's well.

[Mark A.Meggs]

If you really want to try and ripen them, use an apple - it will give off ethylene gas which is what triggers the ripening.

You can use them green of course, to make chutney, relish, or pickles.

- Mark

[MrMe]

: snip :

Are you sure you're not talking marijuana ?

= Me =