To ripen on or off the vine: that is the question

[GrnGardener]

A new home-garden tomato grower here...glad to be here.

I've always had the impression that picking a tomato slightly early and letting it ripen off the vine is something that only a commercial grower would do and it's advantageous only because it may be a while before the consumer actually gets it.

But I've heard that even for us home growers tomatoes sometimes taste better when ripened off the vine.

Any thoughts on this? Thanks.

[Lee]

Once the fruit starts blushing, (turning pink,red, orange, yellow, etc..) you can pick it and let it ripen inside with no difference in taste.

Now, for me, they taste 100% better if I pick them at first blush due to the obnoxious bird I have that likes to sample each fruit as it ripens! Leave it on the vine, and the bird eats it instead of me... no thanks!

Hopefully you don't have this problem!

Lee

[Redbaron]

I prefer vine ripened. However, I prefer a good tomato over a damaged tomato. So when pests, rodents, bad weather etc.. is coming, best to pick at first blush. it's about 95% as good and you get a good tomato instead of a damaged tomato.

[Worth1]

A tomato in the hand beats two in ((Foamy)) the rabid squirrels mouth.


Worth

[Anthony_Toronto]

I try to let them stay on the vine for as long as I can but aside from cherries or bigger tomatoes that do a very very good job of hiding from me I generally grab em when I see em blushing, though that may be several days into their blush. I don't have a lot of problems with critters, but if we are about to have a huge downpour, or if it is dry and time to give the soil a very deep soaking, I will definitely take to time to pick anything that is beyond a very light blush, just to avoid the potential negative effects of extra H2O getting into the fruits and causing them to crack or be watered down (or even be mealy, if that is indeed a cause).

[TexasTycoon]

The main benefit to ripening off the vine is that you greatly reduce the risk of birds, squirrels, and other critters spotting your bright red fruit and having a nibble. There is zero noticeable taste difference between vine-ripened and counter-ripened as long as you pick at first blush, because tomatoes ripen from the inside out. Check the blossom end for a sign of color change and you're good to pick 'em. There was a color chart posted somewhere around here that was helpful for identifying ripening stages. Let me see if I can find it...

Edit: Found it!

[Lee]

Turning/Pink is the point that I typically harvest at. Interestingly enough, the birds stay away from the yellows.....
The "blue" tomatoes, they attack even solid unripe......

Lee

[TexasTycoon]

Originally Posted by Lee

Turning/Pink is the point that I typically harvest at. Interestingly enough, the birds stay away from the yellows.....
The "blue" tomatoes, they attack even solid unripe......

Lee

Same here. After having three tomatoes ravaged by one mean mockingbird earlier in the season (from my first and only tomato plant, no less), I stopped trying to vine-ripen and now just set them right on the counter, shoulders down.

[Father'sDaughter]

There are all sorts of threads floating around here on this very subject. A lot of us have come to the consensus that there is no real difference in taste if you pick tomatoes at first blush and allow them to fully ripen indoors.

Like others, I have suffered too much heartbreak over beautiful fruit that was chomped on by some creature just two days before I was going to pick it. I now get to watch my beautiful tomatoes come to full maturity in the safety of my living room.

Tomato-vision & Television!

[Slg Garden]

Do they ripen more quickly if left on the vine or picked early? Basically, I'm completely envious of everyone's ripe tomatoes and want to rush the process.

[Father'sDaughter]

I'd say slower inside because the house is cooler, especially on hot days when we run the central AC.

[SharonRossy]

Trust me it's not worth the risk. I found a greenie on the ground today chewed up by a nasty squirrel so I can see it's going to be a war between myself and the rodent tomato thief!

[bower]

I'd say, it depends on the weather. If it's pleasant summer temperatures I let them get as ripe as possible on the vine, and they do that pretty quick. If the heat is really blasting I may pick em when coloured but still firm, to avoid cracking if that's a problem. This year it's not heat, not even close to normal summer temperatures, I've been picking at the 'pink' stage or later depending on the run of temperatures, to ripen indoors - because it's warmer indoors than in the greenhouse.
Here's an article about the effect of temperature on volatiles in tomatoes - they found that chilled fruit produced nearly normal level of volatiles if the final ripening temperature was brought up to 70 degrees.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...08814694901643

I also think you get the best 'off vine' ripe taste by enclosing them in a box or paper bag - this also speeds up the ripening process a bit. I think the ideal temperature is 65-70 F for best flavour, but it can be speeded up by putting them in a warmer place.. IMO the quality suffers though if it's too warm - don't know why that is different from 'on the vine' except that au naturel they are getting cooler spells at night.

[Gardeneer]

I think plant pumps in just one kind of food into the fruit.
Ripening, i.e. change in chemistry occurs inside the fruit ( acid, sugar whatever). Higher temperature might speed up the process.
And at some point due to the hardening of the stem nothing gets into the fruit from the plant.
So ripening on the plant in hot weather fruits would lose moisture much faster than say on the counter. So then fruits ripened on the counter should be juicier, me thinks

[Slg Garden]

Re: hardening of the stem. That makes sense but then I wonder why they split when they're over watered even when they're quite ripe. It's all confusing to this relative newbie.