Topping Tomatoes for Fall

[jmsieglaff]

The calendar has changed to August and I'll be sowing some lettuce, spinach, and radish seeds soon. I recall reading here or there about topping your tomato plants in the late summer so the plant's energy does not go into continuously producing vine growth and new tomatoes that will never mature, but into the existing fruit. Something I never have done unless the plant grew taller than its supports, but it makes sense. For anyone that does/has done this--have you noticed an improvement in your late season fruits versus not doing it? Any rules of thumb of X weeks ahead of frost date--I suppose paying attention for each variety from flowering to ripe would have been useful.

[ContainerTed]

I don't top mine because I use the green fruit. No, I don't pack away a lot of green slices for fried green tomatoes. I use the green tomatoes left over when frost is hours away and add to them the immature/green peppers and dice them up very fine and pickle them into a relish. I usually make about 12 pints. The neighbors get a few and we use the rest on such things as hot dogs and burgers. It's also good with beans and such. I guess it's kind of a green Chow Chow. You can make it hot or mild. You can also flavor it like any pickles. I prefer the Bread and Butter flavor.

I tried the topping thing for three years and found it useless. Someone else may have a better experience, but I have to say that my relish solution is a lot more tasty and a lot less work than topping the plants.

[jmsieglaff]

Care to share your recipe? Sounds tasty.

[ContainerTed]

Originally Posted by jmsieglaff

Care to share your recipe? Sounds tasty.

Get yourself a package of "Mrs Wages Bread and Butter Pickle Mix". Around here, I get mine from Walmart. Just follow the recipe on the package substituting the diced up tomatoes and peppers for the pickles. I use half and half between distilled white vinegar and a good Apple Cider vinegar.

Add in jalapenos or serranos for milder heat and additional bulk, or just sprinkle in some cayenne or red pepper flakes and adjust the heat to your liking.

After you bring it up to boiling temperature on the stove and fill up your jars (pints are my recommendation), you can further process them in a boiling water bath or pressure canner. but I like to retain some of the crunch and simply let the lids pop. The vinegar places the PH at a good low level (as in acidity) and they will easily last up to two years.

[habitat_gardener]

I asked about "topping" a few years ago, and iirc Carolyn said that when she was growing hundreds of tomatoes, she helped the existing ones ripen not by topping but by cutting the feeder roots. With a shovel, cut a circle around the plant 6 inches deep, a foot or so out from the stem. That puts the plant out of vegetative mode and into reproductive mode, so instead of putting more energy into growing foliage, it puts all its energy into ripening the fruit that has already formed.

[zipcode]

6 weeks is about the minimum time you can get from flower to ripe fruit during summer. So 6 or 8 weeks for topping sounds good. I would say it has some effect.

[ScottinAtlanta]

6 weeks - so we have until mid or late Oct here in Atlanta, so I am still fertilizing like mad to get that last rush of blossoms.

[jmsieglaff]

Very interesting. Did you do the root cutting method? How did it work?

[habitat_gardener]

No, I didn't get around to trying it. Every year I keep hoping it'll be a milder winter and the freeze won't come, and almost every year it comes the same week!

Here's the old thread with the full explanation...and I see it's 6 inches deep, not an inch or two (I'll go correct it in my original post, too.)

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...094#post300094

[b54red]

For topping to be effective and it is you need to make sure to clip or pinch any growth tips on the plant. All the little suckers and tips from everywhere on the plant. I have done this six or so weeks before the first frost date on some of my fall plants and it made a real difference in size and ripening of existing fruits. The only big drawback besides daily looking for growth tips to pinch was the fact that sometimes down here the cool weather may not even get here until Christmas and other times it can hit in October. I topped too soon one year and lost nearly two months of production because the first killing frost didn't occur til after the new year. Now I only top the slower maturing varieties like the larger beefsteaks and leave the smaller fruited varieties to continue setting fruit. Even when I don't top the plants it is a good idea to limit the growth tips to only a couple of stems as cool weather approaches.

Bill

[JLJ_]

For people to whom the idea of severing roots to hasten ripening might be new . . . a few things to consider:

1) This is a technique to hasten ripening of mature green fruit, which does not need to grow any further, just ripen. Any other fruit may not develop normally, even if weather stays decent -- some say they've had younger fruit develop BER if it does try to continue growing. If you're a person with hundreds of plants, who no way has time to fuss with immature fruit, cutting a six inch deep circle around the plants to hasten ripening of whatever is mature makes sense -- but if you are a person with a few plants, hoping to get all the fruit possible off each plant, it may not be the technique for you.

2) To ripen fruit that is is mature green, another option is to pick it, bring it inside, put is somewhere out of sunlight, where it is neither warm nor cold, and let it ripen. (Don't put it into a sack with a banana or anything like that -- you'll just be doing what the groceries do -- turning it ripe color without letting it ripen properly). For me, bringing mature green fruit inside to ripen works well, as our summers are short, and toward the end of the season our nights get into the 40's, so I think that the fruit ripens better inside, never exposed to 'refrigerator' temperatures, than it does if left on the vine . . . and if the weather is milder than expected, that lets any remaining fruit continue to develop normally.

One way to identify 'mature green' is to look for a distinct star -- radiating lighter colored lines -- on the blossom end of *most* mature green tomatoes.

Some links about ripening inside:

At First Blush, Harvest Tomatoes
http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/news/sty/200...toes071805.htm

Vine ripen or pull early and ripen indoors
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=23427

Saving seeds from slightly unripe tomato
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=9349

Poll: Taste Test on ripening tomatoes on the vine vs. ripening inside
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?p=228951



3) Another option to consider if you prefer to leave your mature green fruit on the vine is that some people stress the plant by cutting roots, but only on two or three sides of the plant, so it diminishes, but does not eliminate all the feeder roots.

Just some thoughts . . . YMMV

[taboule]

Thanks JLJ for this great set of links, all in one place.