Septoria affecting ripening? If not, what is delaying ripening??

[cleo88]

Just got back from a week's vacation and as expected, the septoria made great progress while I was not around to remove affected leaves (not that that slows it down all that much).

I am deeply committed to Daconil for next year but given that it is a preventive, not going to bother at this point.

I also never got around to mulching my larger tomato bed and have been reading that mulching may help, so that will be a priority next year.

But my question du jour is: after my deer and chipmunk problems, now I FINALLY have a lot of large green tomatoes that look fantastic. But they would look more fantastic if they would start blushing. Really, I can't believe they've been so big and so green for so long. So is it possible that my reduced amount of foliage due to septoria is retarding the ripening process? Because if it's not, I really have no idea why these frickin tomatoes are not ripening.

It's been fantastic weather here, hot and dry. Is it possible that it's been TOO dry here and that is delaying the ripening?? If anything, I've underwatered this year. Clearly I'm grasping at straws. Help!