From your description of the weather pattern, there seems to be no hope trying to save your plants for a few more days. At temperature like 50s ( for highs) and 40s (for lows), tomato plants surely can/will survive but not likely to grow fruits any bigger. Even with my temperatures ( highs about 65F, lows ~~ 50f) things are moving. very very very slooowly.

So under the circumstance I would do the following:

-- Definitely pick any with color.
-- Definitely pick any with some color suggestion and/or getting pale (from green).

-- Then I would spread them single layer (on towels, newspapers, in kitche, gatage, basement..) There is a good chance that most of those will get at least some color.
They will ripen much faster inside than on the vines.

__ the smaller immature green ones can make good pickle, and relish too. Some people make green fried tomatoes too.

I went out today and harvested all the tomatoes that were ripe or partially ripe (along with a few green ones that fell off) and I probably have about 40 pounds or so of tomatoes. That is better than I expected for planting so late. I have pretty much decided to let nature take it's course with the plants and see how much longer they survive without a cover and start a winter crop (of what I am not sure) when I get the greenhouse up. The amount of completely green tomatoes remaining on the plants is at least the same amount if not more than what I harvested today so hopefully the weather cooperates and some of them start to ripen. Do you think I am better off leaving the green tomatoes on the plants and taking my chances or picking them and bringing them inside?

If some of your plants still look pretty healthy they could continue to ripen. Most of my plants are shutting down. I have one called Mountain Gold that is still putting on new fruit and some of the fruit is ripening. The plant even looks fine, it is the only variety I have grown this year that has looked pristine all year even now in early October it still looks almost unblemished.
I will definitely try Mountain Gold again next year.

Since you appear to be in Wisconsin, I think it's safe to say that your growing season for tomatoes is pretty well over. Even if you don't get a hard freeze, fruit quality is hard to maintain if you can't get at least into the 60's. on a regular basis. I'd pick whatever is of any size now, and let it ripen indoors. It's just going to get colder and cool weather diseases and uneven ripening with grainy pithy spots or mealy texture will be the end result for chilled fruit.

I have a "sweetie" cherry tomato plant and a regular cherry tomato plant that still look really healthy and as far as I can tell are even producing new fruit towards the top. These 2 plants make up about 1/3 of the tomato plants I am growing and I am impressed with the amount of tomatoes they have produced so far (especially since I have 1' spacing between all my plants). Some of my other plants look healthy and might or might not be still producing new tomatoes. Some of my other plants like a bush cherry tomato plant I grew produced a few clusters of tomatoes and are now dead. I used the square foot gardening method for all of my tomato plants while using my own variation on the Florida weave to support 40'+ long rows. I also trimmed most of my plants to a single stem. I have to say overall I am impressed with the results of my experiment and learned a few lessons for next year. If I have a chance tomorrow I will take a few pictures and upload them. I think I might push my luck here and let the plants go for at least another week with just the green tomatoes on them to see if they start to ripen. If the green tomatoes do happen to freeze are they still useful for anything?

Looks like last night I avoided a freeze but I don't think I am going to be that lucky tonight. They are predicting 31 for the low. I have been watching youtube videos on ripening tomatoes and some people have suggested pulling the whole plant out of the ground before the first frost and hanging it upside down. I am considering doing that but it is going to be hard to find the space to hang them. My other idea for the cherry tomato plants (and the other ones when possible) was to cut off the vines holding the bunches of tomatoes together and store the tomatoes on the vine in paper bags. I have seen some videos where people say once you get a frost the green tomatoes wont ripen so I think whatever I do I want to get it done today. I estimate I have at least 50 pounds of green tomatoes still on the plants and it would be nice to ripen as many of those as possible.I am open to any suggestions anyone might have.

About 2 weeks ago, I picked up most of my tomatoes because I expected lower 40s. And it was 40â F. I put the green tomatoes in the basement.

Two weeks later, they are ripening nicely in the basement...

I also have a small hoop house for some of my tomatoes. They are doing great inside. Mortgage Lifter, Rose, German Johnsonâ¦- and especially cherry tomatoes - are having many new fruits.

When I will have temperatures in the 30s, my garden would be long time clean. Even the hoop house will be empty. That plastic can't fight 30' F.

This post was edited by Daniel_NY on Sat, Oct 4, 14 at 16:27

Aha, thank you, the info I need before I thought to ask. I love this last photo.

Well it is now officially over. There is a freeze warning for tonight. I guess I will go forward with my plan to remove all the green tomatoes today. My plan is to cut off whole bunches of tomatoes if possible and leave them connected to the vines then place them in paper bags. On a side note I bought some stuff for canning today. Does anyone know any good ways to can cherry tomatoes for use in chili or spaghetti sauce? I am new to all this so any advice would be appreciated. If I have time today I will take some pictures of my plants (before the freeze kills them tonight) and upload them.

survivalgardener, I think you complicate yourself with those paper bags.

cottonwood468, a few more pictures of the small hoop house:

another picture

and another one...

and the last one...

The front and the roof are rolled up, and the removable right side, errr.... removed.

well, this cold caught me slightly not ready so I was collecting my last green and all tomatoes last night with a flashlight LOL
but yeah, we are done.

I just barely beat the sun going down and now have all my green tomatoes inside. I probably ended up with twice as many green tomatoes as ripe or partially ripe tomatoes. I probably have 60-70 pounds of tomatoes total. Not bad for not getting the plants in the ground until July.

I'm not done here.

Today Saturday we had a high of 69'F and the low tonight will be 47' F.

We always ripened our tomatoes by wrapping each one in newspaper and them putting them all in a paper bag. It worked well in New Jersey.

Well it's been about a week since I harvested all my tomatoes. I went through all of them today and almost all of them have turned a lighter green if not yellow or even red. Hopefully this means most of them will ripen eventually. I am now starting to collect seeds for next year. I was wondering if the seeds from green tomatoes that ripen indoors will produce good plants or should I try to only get seeds from vine ripened tomatoes?

You can save seeds, but it depends how green, usually a 70%+ mature tomato works and less doesn't. Just ripen like you are doing and then cut through the tomato you want to use for seed with a sharp knife. If the seeds get cut rather than slip out of the way, probably not good. But if the seeds are brown and have gel around them, most will be good.

I did this with one tomato and got a good plant from the seed, but next time I will put about 4 in each starter plug and take the best of the group, instead of just one which I normally do. You might want to pre-germinate them in a plastic bag on a paper towel and then the instant some good looking ones show germination, transfer the seed to the plug or whatever you use.

Lindalana (pre-soak) and especially Daniel (pre-germinate)both do similar methods as they have posted. I personally don't because the first time I experimented with it, I let the roots grow 2-3 days and many of them did worse upon transfer. Just a suggestion.
PC