My Tomatoes usually take at least 45 to 70 days from flower to fruit. Not as long if they're cherry but I live on the other side of the states in Oregon.

Thank you Vince and Sey. That's a little encouraging. Lets see how it goes! K.

I assume you've seen this Tomato Timeline before. If not then I'm sure you'll find it interesting. Of course there are many variables that affect the time it takes for a tomato to ripen so no one can really say with any certainty how long it will take.

Rodney

Rodney: Thank you for that link. No I hadn't seen or know of that page. Somehow I never imagined it took so long! I just hope mine go fast. K.

katya, fast is in FL, TX and CA.

NOT NYC...

Welcome to the Tomato forum K, glad you made it here too!

You should have a decent amount of ripe tomatoes this season, most of the current fertilized flowers will likely ripen. And as for the late season green tomatoes, slice them, dip them in egg & breadcrumb then fry them, you'll thank us afterwards ;)

Steve.

Daniel....such a shame! I guess there are some things special about NYC. But do tomatoes continue to ripen in and most of September?

Hi Steve, I am here too! Thank you for your good wishes, as always. OK I will have fried green tomatoes (with fermented green hot pepper sauce) and thank you for both ;) ;) ;)

K.

September is good tomato weather. Generally sunny, moderate temps... that's basically perfect lycopene/carotenoid-making weather and tomatoes should continue to ripen well and more quickly than in the heat of August, actually, provided the changing sun angles still give enough sunlight. Growing up in south NJ, which is basically the same climate, maybe a few degrees warmer sometimes, we had tomatoes well into late September--sometimes even in early Oct. In the city, the biggest concern is getting enough sunlight to your tomato plants.

That is such a heartening comment gorbelly. Thank you so much. I was a little anxious that come end of August it would be all over for ripening. And that would mean no tomatoes because most of my tomatoes (many thankfully) are forming from flowers now. Thankfully too, I get a lot of sun, even though it will lower to the horizon.

I also read your comment, now I cannot remember where, that high potassium is good for fruit. That has been my experience. I had used high potassium fertilizer on fruit trees and the fruiting had been amazing. At the time I did not know that, I was just following instructions. I ask because I am wondering if I add some high K fertilizer now would it help in fruit formation and development and even, ripening (of the tomatoes)?

Thank you for sharing your experience.

K.

K. please check my thread: The AWESOME Indian Summer of 2014 in New York area.

katyajini, I'm not actually the most experienced with growing. I have what I remember from helping out with the family garden growing up, but this is the first year I've had the space to grow my own garden as an adult (which I'm loving).

Based on what I've learned, though, what I'd probably do in your situation is give them a high-K fertilizer like Espoma Tomato Tone, which I believe also has calcium and other beneficial minerals as well. It probably won't help with ripening so much as making sure no nutrient deficiencies prevent the immature tomatoes from getting to full size as quickly as possible (because tomatoes don't start to ripen until they get to full size, aka "mature green"). I don't think any fertilizer really helps to speed ripening, though--that's just a matter of temperature (not too cold, not too hot) and sunlight.

Daniel: That is a very big plant and a very big number of green tomatoes to pick and arrange! We should all be so fortunate. :)

gorbelly : congratulations on having your own garden. It really is incredible joy. And thank you for your advice.

K.

I had to bring lots of green tomatoes in last year due to an early frost and about 90% ripened. They still tasted better than any store-bought. I'd say if you got the room, go for it :).

Do you store the green tomatoes in paper bags to ripen or just on the kitchen counter? Or in a cool place like the basement?

K.

The best way to try to ripen green tomatoes ( that I know) is to spread them on single layer, in room temperature , away from direct sun., on newspaper or paper towel. I think cold temperature will inhibit ripening.

Make sure they are dry and not bruised. The reason for using paper towel, boxes, is when you have a lot of them.

Sey

Also, regardless of whether you're late or not, there comes a time in the season when you can start lopping off blooms and culling small, immature fruit to try to speed up maturation/ripening of larger fruit. When you decide to do that depends on your location and conditions.

Re: ripening--I occasionally have fruit fall off or get pruned off accidentally, and as long as it's showing even the slightest hint of color at the time it's severed from the vine, it'll ripen on the countertop. I just shove them into a corner somewhere out of the way, but I guess if you have more than a couple, you could put paper under them as a friendlier surface for moisture control. To ripen more quickly, supposedly you can put underripe fruit in a closed paper bag with something that produces ethylene gas, such as a ripening banana, but I've never been in that much of a hurry--I just wanted to save fallen fruit from going to waste. I've heard that, if the fruit is not mature green and at least starting to turn whitish on the blossom end when it comes off the vine, it will never ripen, and my experience has supported this so far. I have a friend who has a lot of tomato plants and has to harvest large amounts of mature green fruit when frost hits, and she wraps them up individually in newspaper and packs them into a box and keeps them in a dry spot in the basement. They can apparently keep for a long time that way, as long as you make sure nobody's rotting. When she wants ripe tomatoes, she takes some out of the box and uses the paper bag method on the kitchen counter.

I did both things: I put some on a counter and let them be and also put them in a brown paper bag and would check every few days. I like to freeze my ripe tomatoes for winter use. I was surprised at how many ripened. It was great!

sprintogarden, gorbelly, Seysonn thank you for those tips. I will need them!

gorbelly: when do think is a good time for me to cut off blooms and immature fruit? 3rd week or end of August? I had not heard of cutting off blooms and immature fruit but I can imagine it is a very good idea!

Thank you!

K.

To prepare for end of season many folks begin trimming off new suckers starting some time in August, mid-August onwards would be fine (example link click here). I suppose you can cut off blooms at the very end of August, i personally don't bother most of the time. As for immature fruit, i would just leave them on in case we have an Indian summer (extended harvest in late September and October etc).

And green tomatoes store for a long time, some will ripen quickly, and others very slowly.

Steve