I'm not too far away in Nassau County and to date I've gotten two ripe tomatoes off of seven massive plants loaded with big green fruits. Typically I get first blush between July 21-24 and first pick around July 26-28. Nothing blushing right now either.

Meanwhile I've picked a few hundred fruits off my grape and cherry plants.

Im not in your area but I've noticed what seems to be later turning tomatoes this year too. Tons of green fruit just sitting and sitting. Most of my plants were planted out over 100 days ago as of today and a few of them I just picked the first fruit this past weekend.

At first I was thinking it was my lack of patience but I know for a fact I had a few canner loads already completed last year by August 1. This year I've probably picked enough for one load (6 or 7 quarts) so far (but it all went to other uses or given away)

A question for you - how was your fertilizer program this year? I have a hunch that I may have been a little high on N... which I know causes excess vegetative growth. I'm wondering if it may affect fruit ripening in some way too. Its just a random thought.

I know it's not a tomato, but I've had a related problem with regards to habanero peppers this year...they just didn't want to grow. We had an unnaturally cold and wet (april through june) and things just didn't do what they normally do. It finally got seasonably hot and dry in July and my peppers have finally started growing Perhaps something like that to some extent for you ?

Good points Dave. For us it means we have to wait a little longer to make BLTs or salsa, for the commercial growers its numbers with lots of zeros impact.

Lol, after posting above, I was just wondering if I will be moving the habeneros into the sun room to complete ripening, since I don't even have blossoms yet. This is so weird, I live in an area where length of season has never been an issue for any garden vegetable/fruit, but it may be this year. Then again, last year, we didn't get a killing frost till Dec 10th...and then it went from 85 one day to 20 the next.

Njitgrad, I am near the shore. I am in the same boat. Lots of good size green tomatoes, no signs of ripening soon. I do have a few cherry tomatoes that I have been picking in the last few days. I have heard that the container tomatoes are ripening faster than in ground. I gave some extra seedlings to my neighbor who put them in pots. They are harvesting now.

FWIW, ripening of tomatoes is actually best done (if you can manage it) in the shade. Whether inside or on the vine. Ideally cooler temperatures. I think sunlight and heat causes starches to form in the fruit.

Our peppers looked pretty horrible here, again because of the unseasonably cool summer, but they've really kicked off the past few weeks with the heat. Now it's gotten very cool again though. I was surprised to feel cold when I walked outside tonight! Back down in the upper 70's, low 80's, cool nights....Weird year.

Any tomatoes we've gotten just take forever to ripen here as well.

We had a cold wet spring. A VT garden writer said tomatoes shouldn't be planted (zone 4-5) until June 10-12 to be sure ground is warm. Due to the cold wet spring, I didn't plant until then. But although the plants grew quickly, the tomatoes aren't ripening. A lot of our nights have been in the 40s. I have very few pepper plants with any peppers growing. Last year I had a bounty. Today we are having torrential rain and some places are reporting hail. Last year I bought locally grown corn on July 31. No sign of any yet this year. Farmers couldn't get into their fields as early as usual. Then because of muddy conditions, couldn't cut hay as early as it should have been cut.

Tomatoes finally started blushing during week of 8/6. Started picking them on 8/11 and letting them ripen indoors. These have got to be the largest and firmest tomatoes I have ever harvested. I still have a lot of green ones that are large as well.

Not only are my tomatoes not ripening very fast, but the plant itself is one third the size it was last year. Sungold, which I plant every year and it gets huge, produces ripe fruit early, by July 4th, for sure. Not this year. They are in the same general area and have received the same routine of care as previous seasons. We had a lot of rainy cloudy, cooler days this year and that is what I hold responsible. Peppers have been slow to form as well.

Prariemoon, I am in z7 by Jersey shore. That's how I felt up to a couple weeks ago. Now, I was only picking sungold then and now my big heirloom tomatoes are finally ripening... All at once!

BTW.. I was told us gold is a hybrid and therefore we shouldn't save seeds for next season. Is that your experience?

" I was told us gold is a hybrid and therefore we shouldn't save seeds for next season. Is that your experience?

You can save seeds if you wish - some do - as long as you understand that as with all hybrids, what grows from them will not be Sungolds. The color and size is not stable genetically so varies. Still, some say they taste ok.

Dave

Thanks. That's what I thought. Sungold is my favorite, so I will just keep buying the seedlings.

"... I will just keep buying the seedlings."

You can buy seeds from most seed suppliers. It's a lot cheaper than buying seedlings. An average packet contains 30 - 40 seeds, and even with shipping charges (if you can't, or don't wish to get them off the shelf) it's an especially good deal with a variety like Sungold. If you store them well, they will stay viable for a good number of years, and just 2 -3 plants can be too much for a family.

I do allow volunteers to come up of any of the cherries, leaving some of the fruits on the ground in the fall for that purpose. I have one growing now that has flowers but no fruit yet. I'll be interested to see if I get any fruit and what it will taste like.

No, I don't save tomato seeds, I buy organic seedlings, because I don't grow that many plants.

Just want to share a picture of this morning's harvest... And there are many more on the vine.

The big ones are Big Rainbow. The ones at the bottom are Hungarian heart. Top right are the black Cherokees. The ones in the yoguart tubes are a mix of sungold and sweet 100s

I was wondering same as our tomatoes this yr (zone 9b here in CA) aren't ripening either. Weather has been real hot last few days. Only thing doing well is okra.

We had a bit of heat wave before the September fall like temp sets in. A lot of my tomatoes have ripened during that time. My fridge is now overflown with tomatoes. (I know, not the best thing to put tomatoes in fridge). We still have a lot of green ones on the vine. I am hoping they would l, take their time...

Same thing here in Massachusetts, lots of green cherry tomatoes just hanging out on a mature indeterminate plant that I over-winter indoors each year. Other plants from seed and cuttings are smaller but at the same stage of fruit set. Along with September comes the stem snapping winds and cool nights, so not much hope for us this far north. Here's hoping OP and others from Jersey downwards will have enough season left to enjoy tomatoes for the rest of us!

Same thing here in Massachusetts, lots of green cherry tomatoes just hanging out on a mature indeterminate plant that I over-winter indoors each year. Other plants from seed and cuttings are smaller but at the same stage of fruit set. Along with September comes the stem snapping winds and cool nights, so not much hope for us this far north. Here's hoping OP and others from Jersey downwards will have enough season left to enjoy tomatoes for the rest of us!

Very slow tomato year for me here in New York. Plants growing well, and pollinating great- just very slow fruit growth.... lots of big green tomatoes on the vines. The cherry tomatoes are the only consistent output now and doing well. Amish Paste I have harvested 3, Red Brandywine 1, "early girl" 4. Looks like the big ones should all turn any day but what a difference a year makes!

Meanwhile the eggplants, zucchini, peppers all thriving!

Yep its a tough tomato year here too (near Toronto, zone 5). They say for ages just green tomatoes ... healthy but green, no sign of turning colour. I thought it was down to the weather as well. We had a cool and wet Spring and then a fairly wet summer as well with clouds and not as much sun. They are turning colour now but still many green ones out there. With the weather getting cooler at night, and even during the day now, I'n not sure they will all have time to ripen which is frustrating lol. There are so many, and healthy ... just pure green :(

I am sure that everyone knows this... tomatoes continue to ripe after picked. So, put the green tomatoes in a paper bag for a few days. Voila... you get ripe tomatoes!

Agree and that is what I am doing but there is a difference in taste with wine ripened vs ripened on the shelf.

I thought you had to wait till they were at least starting to turn colour for that to work. I've picked green tomatoes before that just sat there and never ripened lol. It is the ones that have a bit of colour, even if it just a blush at the end, that will ripen after being picked? Of course, I could be wrong ... perhaps I've just had bad luck :)

The Principe Borghese large cherry tomato that I loved last year seems to be tasteless this year. I have good flavor and earliest ripening on a slicer growing in my high tunnel. I have to check tag to see what it is. Opalka paste tomatoes have some kind of disease. Tomatoes have ripened but again, flavor not great. Two other cherry tomatoes seem to be doing ok but plants are not as bushy as usual.

Due to the cold wet spring, I didn't plant out until mid-June following Henry Homeyer's advice. He's a garden writer (weekly articles in Hippo Press) who gardens in VT. I started my peppers later than I did last year resulting in few turning red by now and our first light frost is traditionally in 10 days. I made more than my usual number of mistakes this year. Hope next year is better.

Cziga, you are right. The tomatoes have to be blushing a bit, at least not the shiny been color before the paper bag trick could work.

Still green here. Cherry tomatoes are now reaching golf-ball sizes, lots of aggressive growth and flowering and even new fruits setting but not a hint of red....

Mine finally all went for red- like overnight and all together! Will need to get started making sauce! Brandywine and Amish Paste all went so fast I didn't even get a chance to bring them in at first blush, they seemed to go from green to mostly red in a matter of a couple days. Not sure if it is my imagination but they seem to be more flavorful than last year? Maybe it is just the long wait haha!

Even though October decided to bless us without frost, November has shown it has no intent to extend the same courtesy. Wednesday we finally dropped, no, plunged, below freezing and haven't gone back since.

In hindsight, it should have been obvious my typical cold protective measures of sheets, shower curtains, water jugs, etc, are better suited to the light frosts of late September and early October, and had no chance of being effective (for the plants... It was super effective at getting the attention of the neighborhood busybody / self-appointed HOA informant)

Up until its undignified demise to mush, Tomato-Zilla had continued to climb beyond the second story balcony and was still aggressively growing water sprouts, flowering, and setting fruit.

Damn things still weren't turning red though!

Behold, the final harvest:

I see green tomato chutney in your future.

I stripped my vines of anything worth keeping and made two huge batches of it ... mild and extra-hot.