Tomato harvesting

10 years ago

When you read something like 70 days to maturity about a tomato plant, is that an approximate time frame until youll start getting ripe fruit? Ive got 7 tomato plants-- 3 are sungolds and theyve been ripening for the past couple weeks and are delicious. The other 4 plants are larger varierties (striped german, brandywine, pineapple, and black velvet). All have fruits on them, but dont seem near to ripening just yet.... i havent grown larger tomatoes before, and i always go away for about 2 weeks the last half of august. Im hoping to get some harvests of these bigger maters before then because i doubt my roomies are gonna be on top of watering them and ill probably have to do some damage control when u get back. But i have no idea when to expect these fruits to begun ripening? Do set fruits begin to ripen faster later in the summer, or do they always take as long? (for instance--if the fruits that set already dont ripen for a month, will i expect that long for any fruits that set in the next week or so, or does ripening have more to do with the time of season, weather, and plant age, rather than than how long the particular orb has set on the plant?)

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Comments (8)

digdirt2
10 years ago
You'll find many related discussions over on the Growing Tomatoes forum here but basically this link should answer your question.

http://feldoncentral.com/garden/tomato_timeline.html

Basically the DTM days is just a very general guide. There are far too many variables to provide a specific number. They will fall into a range of 40-60 days from fruit set to ripe depending on the variety.

As a general rule, slicers and beefsteaks take much longer to ripen than cherries and container plants take longer than in ground plants. But there are always exceptions.

Dave
Labradors
10 years ago
Don't forget that any tomatoes that are blushing (showing the slightest bit of pink) can be picked before you leave, and taken with you or given away. Placing them somewhere out of direct sunshine will allow them to ripen, and they will be safe from insects, animals and storms.

Linda
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parczel
Original Author
10 years ago
I saw something on another thread about mulching when leaving a garden during the growing season... will this help with water retention in containers? Im not currently mulching because the home depot only had dyed red mulch and i figured thats not safe... but if it would help with the soil drying out i might look around a bit more. Is there a type of wood or mulch i should look for, type to avoid, etc?
Labradors
10 years ago
Absolutely! I use (cedar) bark mulch on my containers, and around the holes that I cut in the black plastic mulch for my tomato plants. I also use grass clippings and pond weed mulches on my rows.

One season, I sent hubby out to buy some kind of compressed coco chip mulch, but he came back with compressed peat moss instead. I used that with great success, and it also made a great soil amendment.

Linda
Suzi AKA DesertDance So CA Zone 9b
10 years ago
Tractor Supply has bales of straw / hay. Makes a good mulch!
nancyjane_gardener
10 years ago
3 Sungolds?????? What do you do with them all? I used to grow 1 per year and even when I was working and giving them away I could barely use them up!I often picked a gallon per day! The plants were often 6 ft tall!

I didn't like the sauce I made with them....too acidic.

I didn't grow one this year cause I have very few neighbors to give them away to and retired a few years ago, so no co-workers to hand them out to. Nancy
parczel
Original Author
10 years ago
Wow nancy... could be that in containers they dont produce as much? I do have two roommates and sometimes give some away... but i dont recall ever getting a gallon a day even from 2-3 plants. (Its my third year growing them). They get to be about 4-5 feet tall for me. Ive got Striped Germans and Brandywines in containers that are almost 7 feet tall right now... but dont have a ton of fruit. Maybe 13 between the two of them so far. Looking forward to them but also worried... last year when i went away for vacay, the sungold plants were in rough shape when i returned... but they easily bounced back and recovered and began producing after some heavy pruning and produced till december.... worried about the bigger guys, though, having a much longer time to ripening...whether or not theyll be able to restart if they arent watered well enough for a couple weeks.
digdirt2
10 years ago
"could be that in containers they dont produce as much?"

No tomato variety will grow as much or produce as much in a container unless you use really big containers - 20+gallon containers - and provide ideal moisture and nutrient supplements. You have to fool them into thinking they are growing in the ground and that is very difficult to do in a container.

I have 2 Sun Gold's growing in 25 gallon containers (1/2 50 gallon barrels) and they, like Nancy's, are easily 8-9 feet tall and still growing. I have easily harvested hundreds of fruits from them already and they are covered with thousands of fruit. Sun Gold, given ideal growing conditions, it one of the largest, most productive varieties there is.

Dave