green shoulders

encore · August 22, 2015

tomatoes were doing great, then the weather went from high 80's to mid 50's at night the high 60's the next day and high 50's at night, now it's back in the high 70's low 80's in the daytime, could that be the reason the tomatoes are staying green on the shoulders now? the rest of the tomato is ripe (almost soft ripe) even the cherry tomatoes are staying green around the stem . don't know if I should leave them or pick them, no problem with anything bothering them (birds, squirrels etc.) if I leave them. any ideas/ weather causing this? thanks tom

Gardeneer · August 22, 2015

Green, in this case is just a color and does not mean that fruit is not ripe.
Take this concept to one extreme ; There are tomatoes that are green when ripe
and there are some in between. Jut take a look at my avatar. That tomato was fully ripe and juicy when I cut it.

**carolyn137** · August 22, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by encore

tomatoes were doing great, then the weather went from high 80's to mid 50's at night the high 60's the next day and high 50's at night, now it's back in the high 70's low 80's in the daytime, could that be the reason the tomatoes are staying green on the shoulders now? the rest of the tomato is ripe (almost soft ripe) even the cherry tomatoes are staying green around the stem . don't know if I should leave them or pick them, no problem with anything bothering them (birds, squirrels etc.) if I leave them. any ideas/ weather causing this? thanks tom

Some varieties have what's called the uniform ripening gene, have it naturally, so they will ripen up with no green shoulders.Those that don't have that gene naturally, will retain green shoulders when they are ripe.

Almost all F1 hybrids have that gene bred into them which is why they ripen up , with no green shoulders, to the full color they are supposed to have.

Carolyn

encore · August 22, 2015

thanks for the replies, maybe I wasn't explaining it right, but they were all solid red when the first ones ripened, now they are not, and was wondering if it had to do with the weather changes.
tom

August 22, 2015	#1
encore Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2015 Location: wisconsin Posts: 536	green shoulders tomatoes were doing great, then the weather went from high 80's to mid 50's at night the high 60's the next day and high 50's at night, now it's back in the high 70's low 80's in the daytime, could that be the reason the tomatoes are staying green on the shoulders now? the rest of the tomato is ripe (almost soft ripe) even the cherry tomatoes are staying green around the stem . don't know if I should leave them or pick them, no problem with anything bothering them (birds, squirrels etc.) if I leave them. any ideas/ weather causing this? thanks tom

August 22, 2015	#2
Gardeneer Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: NC - zone 8a - heat zone 7 Posts: 4,919	Green, in this case is just a color and does not mean that fruit is not ripe. Take this concept to one extreme ; There are tomatoes that are green when ripe and there are some in between. Jut take a look at my avatar. That tomato was fully ripe and juicy when I cut it.