Gimme a break
Gimme a break
Bite me off a piece of that kit kat ma!
Posted on 07/03/2009 4:00:47 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning to all of you gardeners. I hope every one of you have a safe and Happy 4th of July weekend! Since just about everyone grows tomatoes in their vegetable garden I thought I would share some information I stumbled across concerning when to pick your tomatoes.
Every tomato lover knows fresh, “vine-ripe” flavor is by far the best.
At the same time, many don’t know what “vine ripe” means. So, whether growing or buying tomatoes, they may be limiting their access to the top flavor of the season.
Tomatoes develop their optimum nutrition, color and flavor when they’re in the full red-ripe stage. But getting to that point doesn’t have to occur on the plant.
Tomatoes go through specific steps in developing “vine ripeness”:
* A gas called ethylene regulates the ripening process. Tomatoes start producing this gas internally when they reach full size and become pale green.
* When tomatoes turn about one-half green and one-half pink (called the breaker stage), a layer of cells forms across their stem, sealing them off from the main vine. At this stage, tomatoes can ripen on or off the vine with no loss of quality or flavor.
* Tomatoes don’t ripen at refrigerator temperatures. If harvested in the breaker stage, however, keeping them in a cool place (to a minimum 50 F) will slow down their ripening process. Keeping them warm (to a maximum 85 F) will rapidly bring full ripeness. And, once ripe, they can keep for several weeks in the refrigerator.
This kind of control allows you to spread out the good eating over a longer period. A breaker-stage harvest also allows you to protect tomatoes from the heat extremes of summer. Tomatoes can’t form their red pigments when temperatures are above 95 degrees. They’ll still ripen, but they’ll end up a yellowish-orange.
Leaving tomatoes to ripen on the vine also increases the odds for cracking and other types of damage. Plus, it puts an increasing weight load on the viney plant.
Excellent company that deals in a wide variety of tomato,
peppers and eggplant seeds and equipment.
JJ61
For the heirloom Marion tomatoes, do you buy seeds or do you collect seeds from tomatoes to plant next year? I am researching the seed collection process and am planning on trying many heirloom varieties (if I can get them to grow here).
It’s so hard to make people understand that technically, all plants are weeds.
A “weed” is just a plant that’s growing where you don’t want it.
Most “weeds” have properties we’ll never understand, and the more invasive they are, probably the better properties they have. We lost that knowledge when we got kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Aren’t we going to feel stupid when we get to Heaven and ask God Why and he tells us—well that one cures cancer and that one... LOL Like dandelions and cattails—some of the best all around plants, foodwise and medicinally, and we expend more effort to eradicate them than most would believe.
It’s even harder to make people understand that Roundup doesn’t care whether it’s a weed you want or a weed you don’t. In the Roundup book, all must die. :)
No figs on yours yet?
Our first year cuttings we took in Dec/Jan are about 3-4 feet tall and loaded with figs. They ripen later, I guess b/c they are cuttings instead of est plants, but they’ll bear all summer, right up until frost. Water seems to be the key. We’re not selling any of our plants until Aug. I’ve sold them too many times and had the most people come back and tell me they died while ours in pots are still thriving. Not sure most people can accurately judge how much/well they water.
They DO love the selective grass killing herbicide, though. I think that is a modern miracle, myself.
Nothing weedier than a strawberry or asparagus patch, Eh?
Yay!
Ah. Now, if they’d just develop one that kills nutgrass. :)
OTOH, it probably cures world hunger or something. LOL
The Marion and Arkansas Traveler tomatoes I planted this year I bought in flats and transplanted them. I will be saving some of the seeds.
Before the first frost, I go out and pull off all the green tomatoes. Fry them up, and eat until I am sick. Do that every year!!
William, Thanks for the link!. I knew that there was a fermentation process to collect tomatoe seeds, but never saw it described. I also read another link on that site about the differences between self-pollinating plants and plants that will cross. I need to look at my winter squash plans to limit to one variety. I will probably pick butternut squash.
That sure looks like a Brandywine. I have two in my garden and the leaves are completely different from the other tomatoes. (I just picked my first 3 tomatoes just now, and one pepper...HooHoo!)
If it ever becomes useful as a bio-fuel you’ll be rich, rich, RICH! :)
Steady supply of Okra coming in, it's really good roasted too
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