Greeny white tomatoes?

[cantymato]

Hi, i am new to this forum and i am from Canterbury New Zealand.
We are in our winter at the moment, so the warmer season for growing tomato's isnt around at the moment.
But i work for a tomato wholesale growers place, we have 3 large glasshouses and one smaller one.
All glasshouses have now been planted out but at different stages and varieties.
I pointed out to the boss the other day when trimming the extra fruit/ugly fruit off the first trus that some of the fruit were a pale white colour.
Does this have anything to do with lack of sunlight perhaps?
Its mainly on the king fruit which can often be the case with the first batch.

[Glenn 50]

Hi Canty you are certainly in the colder part of the country at this time of the year. Can't answer your question (I am sure folks here will be able to))but just thought I would say welcome.
Glenn from New Plymouth.

[Wi-sunflower]

Actually that pale almost "white" color is an indicator that the fruit are almost ripe.

Way back when i first started growing for market, an "old timer" told me that when the tomatoes get to a stage where they are "white and look like they are made of wax" (like the old fake wax fruit) that is what he called "waxy" and it's only about 10 days til the fruit is colored enough to take to market.

Carol

[carolyn137]

I pointed out to the boss the other day when trimming the extra fruit/ugly fruit off the first trus that some of the fruit were a pale white colour.
Does this have anything to do with lack of sunlight perhaps?
Its mainly on the king fruit which can often be the case with the first batch.

****

I guess I'm a bit confused, so help me, and welcome as well.

You say that most of the plants were just planted in the glasshouses, as in "all glasshouse have now been planted out" but then talk about thinning fruits and taking ugly fruits off the first truss.

So can I assume that you're talking about unripe tomatoes and you're concerned about them being a lighter green color than you've seen before, either inside glasshouses or with outside growing?

[cantymato]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

I pointed out to the boss the other day when trimming the extra fruit/ugly fruit off the first trus that some of the fruit were a pale white colour.
Does this have anything to do with lack of sunlight perhaps?
Its mainly on the king fruit which can often be the case with the first batch.

****

I guess I'm a bit confused, so help me, and welcome as well.

You say that most of the plants were just planted in the glasshouses, as in "all glasshouse have now been planted out" but then talk about thinning fruits and taking ugly fruits off the first truss.

So can I assume that you're talking about unripe tomatoes and you're concerned about them being a lighter green color than you've seen before, either inside glasshouses or with outside growing?

No these plants have been growing for about a month and a half, and they should be all a green colour but some are a white colour.
They have until the end of July before the first trus will be picked, just wanting to know what may have caused this.
None are grown outside as its currently winter here, and the frosts would kill them.
They are kept at a temperature of 17-18C.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by cantymato

No these plants have been growing for about a month and a half, and they should be all a green colour but some are a white colour.
They have until the end of July before the first trus will be picked, just wanting to know what may have caused this.
None are grown outside as its currently winter here, and the frosts would kill them.
They are kept at a temperature of 17-18C.

OK, got it, and although I know Glenn and a few other Kiwis I never did know where in NZ frosts could be a problem.

So, the immature fruits are more of a white color when they should be a deeper green color but the plants themselves are looking green and healthy and fine. Right?

All that comes to mind right now is the possibility that the glasshouse varieties you're using just do that as immature fruits, as in stay a lighter green, I wouldn't call it a white, though.

There are two hydroponic places near me and I've visited them both out of curiousity and they grow them in I forget now, but I think lava blocks of some kind and the immature fruits I've seen have not been the green that I see with my outside plants and these are also in greenhouses, as we call them here, so I just assumed that the special varieties they use gave lighter colored immature fruits.

I can't see lack of light being the cause for lighter colored immature fruits since greenhouses have been used to grow tomatoes in many places in the world to ripe fruits. Many of the ripe fruits I see in the stores here where I live in the winter are from the huge greenhouse operations in Canada and the angle of the sun is low during winter and yet they do fine.

What does the owner have to say about these lighter colored immature fruits? Was this also seen last year with the same varieties and is the owner concerned about this based on past experiences with glasshouse tomato growing?

[matertoo]

Welcome to Tville. Glad to have you aboard.

Happy Matering,

Paul