Nonsense.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3937827/

"The contents of metabolites involved in primary metabolism, and conferring the palatable properties of fruits, are altered when fruits are ripened off-the-vine. The consequence of this is the inferior quality of tomato fruits ripened off-the-vine due in part to the lower levels of fructose and glucose sucrose, which are involved in conferring the sweet taste to fruit, together with aspartate and glutamate, both implicated in UMAMI taste, and other compounds present at low concentrations."

I pick tomatoes when they are about 75% ripened on the vine. They'll fully ripen quickly indoors out of the sun and are much more juicy than if picked too green. Waiting too long to pick them does allow cracking to occur esp if it rains while still on the vine. If I see rain coming I'll pick all the tomatoes a little bit early at about 50% fully ripe to prevent the cracking/splitting which is esp true for the thin skinned heirloom types. Hybrids are not as delicate and they rarely split unless it's a flooding rain >2"

eta : at the end of the season when a killing frost is forecast I'll pick all of the remaining tomatoes and they turn out to be about the same quality as store bought tomatoes which are generally picked green and in some cases gassed to turn them artificially red.

My reply from other thread today:

...they start to turn color you can pick them with no loss in sweetness vs. waiting from them to ripen on the vine."

I also find this hard to believe. Tomatoes will ripen off the vine, but they're not going to be nearly as sweet. Plants store excess energy in the form of carbohydrate (sugar) -- and that energy comes from light, CO2 and H2O. There are other environmental and genetic factors that come into play, of course, but as a general statement more sunlight = more photosynthesis = more energy stored = sweeter.

There is no benefit to allowing a fruit to ripen on the plant. If you pick them while completely green and allow them to ripen inside the flavor will be subpar compared to a vine ripened tomato. This is often done with grocery store tomatoes.

However, if you wait until breaker stage to pick them there will be no difference in quality versus one that was left on the vine to ripen. At breaker stage the fruit has gotten everything it needs from the plant, and the plant actually stops supplying nutrients to the fruit.

Rodney

https://extension.psu.edu/is-this-tomato-ready-to-harvest

That's largely correct, in that at breaker stage no more sugars are transferred into the fruit, but the connection between the plant and the fruit is not sealed off. Robert Pavlis has looked into this with some care.

https://www.gardenmyths.com/myth-is-born-tomato-ripening/

My earlier post that allowing tomatoes to ripen off the plant would still allow sugars to develop was nonsense was aimed at GREEN tomatoes. That's what the paper I referenced was referring to. That's how store-bought tomatoes are ripened, and that's why their flavor is poorer. But the OP was referring to breaker stage.

Thanks guys! I find it really hard to beleive it but read it a few places. I aim for over 50% ripe (50% from green to red). Usually 75% and pick because of rain coming that will crack them. Also certain varieties crack much more. I have noticed ones in more sun seem to crack more.

I find tomatoes are superior if they are picked before a thirsty chipmunk takes a bite.

Also the birds and squirrels like to bite mi…

A agree with Rodney. Once they start to break color, I pick them. Only bad things can happen to the fruit after they break.

Cherry tomatoes seem to be an exception and I try to wait until they fully ripen before picking but that usually also leads to some splitting.

Eminent rain changes all the rules.

I don't have a link to post but a wise man once said "the proof is in the pudding" and I agree. Try it both ways then you know how it works for YOU. I can't tell the difference but I also can't tell the difference between 5yo and 10yo bourbon so I buy the former and a steak with the savings.

I used to strive for fully ripening tomatoes on the vine... it seemed like one of the the huge advantages of growing my own, and you see the most expensive store bought tomatoes advertise themselves as "vine ripened", right? I harvested a good amount of often ugly ripe fruit... splits, spots, bites removed... that tasted great. However, after a friend suggested it, I started harvesting tomatoes as soon as they blush... the "breaking" stage... and letting them rest on my windowsill, and the results were remarkable. Perfect looking fruits that taste great. Maybe there are less sugars... but like klem1's bourbon above, I sure can't tell the difference. My wasted tomatoes... due to rot, decay, disease, pests, whatever, are WAY down. Heirlooms for me just become too vulnerable at the full ripe stage on the vine. Lastly, I find that having a number of nice fruits in varying stages of ripe in the kitchen means that we eat more of them, use more of them in our cooking, and share more of them with friends and family... and they have a longer shelf life than waiting until the last moments of their ripening on the plant. My 2 cents worth. There are no wrong answers on this topic, and I personally enjoy hearing everyone's unique experiences.

Jason gave you several reasons for not waiting until fully ripe.

Yes, but those aren't arguments about making them taste better. I believe that was what the OP was originally asking about. It's well understood that tomatoes survive better appearance-wise when picked early. The question was to what extent that affected their taste.

"It's well understood" the extent varies with individuals. Not so well understood is the psychological impact.

I used to be able to let my tomatoes stay on the plants until fully ripe, but now I have to grab them as soon as they show a little color, or the birds start pecking them, so I really have no way to compare.

But they do ripen nicely once picked, and look and taste very good.

Here's our normal looking tomato rack in the summer. Most all of these were picked at the ~75% ripe stage. The oldest ones get moved up to the top shelf and those are about 1 week old from picking, the bottom rack was picked that day. A mix of Cherokee Purples, Pink BWs, and a typical hybrid which generally turn more of a deep orange than red.

I envy you that setup, vgkg!

^^^ Thanks Carol, but VgQn gets the credit for the rack, she found 2 of them at a restaurant surplus store and they do come in very handy for veggie stacking. The 2nd rack holds the sweet potato harvest. We sure do miss our fresh vine ripened tomatoes this time of year.

I took the time to read the published study Dan posted and it's incomplete and misleading. The study was conducted comparing vine ripened tomatoes with only Green mature (stage 2) and should have also included the other stages (3-6) of ripening for comparison.

Mature green (#2) picked to ripen off the vine will be nasty, sure it's mature but this is the point where the plant starts isolating the tomato from the plant so the tomato still has some dependency on the plant., it's a preemie and still takes about 3 days to complete the isolation.

Between each stage of ripening is about 3 days, and If I completely pick all the 4-7's I don't need to go pick again for another 6 days. All stages 4 to 6 when picked will taste the same as a number 7 left to ripen on the vine, but not a 2 or 3. Waiting for them to ripen on the vine in not productive with to many damaged fruits, and since I pick 100's of pounds in a season for processing picking after the breaker stage is the best way for me with no difference in taste.

There is only on variety i let sit on the vine to fully ripen only because it's bullet proof and rarely ever has a split or damaged tomato, and can hang on the vine for weeks in the fully ripe stage without degradation. I've heard many growers will pick green matures and breakers then cool them down to slow or stop the ripening process until they reach the final wholesale produce warehouse, now these are the nastiest.

May I add to your observations Kevin9408 ? Tomatoes grown and shipped to wholesale produce warehouses ARE NOT same varieties grown in 90% of backyard gardens. Campbell soup has had a plant near me for more than 50 years supplied by local farmers. I've ate tomatoes from those fields countless times over the years and all taste like those in supermarkets. These farmers have tried growing flavorful varieties that will survive shipping just a short distance to local restaurants and supermarkets but none were successful.

kevin9408 that's true, and I did admit that in a post I made a week ago. That article was aimed at the commercial supermarket industry, ripening fully green tomatoes off the vine. We're talking about breaker phase tomatoes.