Saving Green Tomatoes B4 Freezing

AlittleSalt · November 9, 2014

This is my first year of having tomatoes in the fall. There is a cold front coming with low temps around freezing starting 3 days from now. I've read about saving green tomatoes by picking them and ripening them inside. Things like not saving blemished or cracked tomatoes are easy to find info on, but what I am not sure about is picking the size of green tomatoes. Can I pick all of the green tomatoes or should I only pick near fully developed size tomatoes?

One Porter tomato plant has over 100 tomatoes on it. I quit counting at 100. I already have hundreds of seeds saved of Porter. So the green tomatoes, I want to eat them when they ripen eventually.

There are a lot of green Rutgers, but I have a pack of store bought seeds saved, so again, I just want to ripen them to eat.

I grew Jelly Bean as an F1. I have two vine ripened tomatoes, and I do want to save seeds from them. Can I save seeds from the green Jelly Bean tomatoes after they ripen on a sunny windowsill?

Sorry if I misworded anything - I have had a headache for three straight days. At least nothing is showing up on the speelcheck r

yardn_gardn · November 9, 2014

Being from an area that might only have 100 frost free days means I've picked my fair share of green tomatoes. Be sure to pick them when they are free from any surface moisture. Try setting the lighter green to white tomatoes stem side down, not touching, on newspaper in a cool location. As you need them, bring them to a sunny window sill to finish their ripening process. Here's hoping for a home grown tomato at Thanksgiving.

b54red · November 9, 2014

I have been growing fall tomatoes for quite a few years and many years I leave a huge amount of green tomatoes to be killed by freezes. I have found there are just so many that I can handle dealing with in the green state. I like to pick about twice as many as I think I will use because usually at least half of them will start to rot before they ripen. Right now I have probably the largest production of fall tomatoes I have ever had but have only gotten a few ripe ones so far. If a hard freeze will hold off for a few more weeks it could be a real bumper crop. If a hard freeze is forecast I will pick as many of the nearly white to blushing larger fruits that I think we will use and washing and drying them thoroughly before storing them.

We have already had at least two nights where temps got below freezing for a short time but the damage was minimal with some leaves being killed or burned on some of the plants. So far no damage has shown on any of the fruit. Most of the damaged foliage was on the younger plants set out in early and late August while my older vines seem more resistant to cold so far. I have made the mistake in the past of picking all of my larger green tomatoes because a freeze is forecast only to find that most of the plants suffered only minor damage but the smaller fruit left on the vines didn't have time to fully develop before the next killing freeze got here.

I have found that usually it takes more than a light freeze to kill tomato plants that are large and mature. A heavy frost can do as much damage to foliage as a light freeze in many cases so that every forecast for near freezing temps has me praying for a bit of wind. It seems that the cold temps need to last for several hours to do major damage. There is a low temperature that once it gets down that low will kill them immediately but I'm just not sure how low that is but I think it is between 25 and 28 degrees but of course sustained cold just under freezing will do the same thing.

Bill

Cheryl2017 · November 9, 2014

Thanks Bill. I am in the same boat as alittlesalt. I may try to ride it out then. We are going to get a freeze but hopefully for short periods. I think this polar vortex is going to stick around for a couple of weeks with high in the 50's and low in the 30's. Sometimes I have noticed being for to five degrees colder though than what is forecast. Decisions decisions.

AlittleSalt · November 9, 2014

Thank you Bill. I've been watching forecasts change for next Wednesday and Thursday's low temperatures. Now they are saying 28-30F at DFW Airport. It's usually colder here at my house than at DFW (Even though I live 45 miles south of DFW.) With the sun in the southern hemisphere the tomato plants in the garden get no direct sun at all. I'm going to gather the tomatoes and pull the plants.

The one Porter plant outside the garden still gets 4 hours of sun daily. It doesn't hurt anything to try to save it, so I guess I'll give it a try.

JLJ_ · November 10, 2014

I picked all our tomatoes, except one variety, about Sept 9. If it had been just a borderline chill, I'd have left the smaller ones, but as what was forecast was substantial snow, (we got about 16 - 18 inches) followed by a couple of days where overnight temps were in the low 20's, I picked everything but the littlest nubs, and cleared out the vines.

I put the green tomatoes on newspaper, preferably not touching, in shallow plastic tubs, in an area that is . . . 50-60ish degrees Fahrenheit most of the time. We've been using some, roasting/freezing the others, as they ripened. The last of them are ripe now.

This happens every year, though not usually so dramatically. I've found that, unless I am going to protect the plants, and unless I'm dealing with brief cold spells followed by warmer temperatures, I get the best quality if I pick tomatoes before they are exposed to freezing or near freezing temperatures. They're best if not exposed to temps below 50, but I try not to let them be exposed to temps in the 30's at all.

I never, at any stage, place them in direct sunshine -- they ripen fine without that, though I've tentatively concluded that the smaller ones may ripen to a higher quality if they are under plant lights -- light, no heat. The quality of those picked very small varies from variety to variety, but most of them ripen to usable quality, and many are as good as garden-ripened.

It's important to check them regularly to remove any that are showing signs of going bad -- using them, roasting/freezing them, or trashing them -- depending upon their state when you find them.

They don't need to be put in bags with ripening fruit -- that is effectively treating them like grocery store tomatoes -- they ripen best for us if just allowed to ripen in their own time, in the above conditions.

Something I did for the first time this year was cut trusses of still green cherry tomatoes. (Not all the cherry tomatoes, just a number of trusses of those doing well.) Those I kept in bags, wide open, with the bags on trays in the same area with the other green tomatoes. They were just in bags because it wasn't practical to spread them out individually, and I suspected that they would ripen best still on the truss. Worked better than I expected, even with the smaller cherries on the truss, and would have worked better if I'd had more time to use them as they ripened.

The one variety I protected was already growing on a frame enclosed in mosquito netting, as they were being grown for seed. When the bad weather came in, I added additional gallon milk jugs filled with water around their base, and put two layers of plastic over them, secured with clamps and more water filled jugs -- the two layers secured separately to provide dead air space between the layers. They had 'ventilation' areas near the top of the frame, on the east (most protected) side, that I could open on sunny but cold days, and I opened the plastic, or even removed it, on any days warm enough for them to be exposed. I just picked all of those and took down their vines day before yesterday, because of the snow and double digit subzero temps moving in right now. While they'd taken a little damage to the outermost parts of the plants when we had spells of freezing temps, and some fruit loss from the vile voles that found them, they were still maturing fruit . . . and blooming and setting fruit . . . when I took the vines down.

Your climate is very different from ours, so I'm sure our procedure wouldn't work identically for you, but perhaps the above might give you some ideas.

Edit: Just noticed your question about saving seeds. As above, I would not put any green tomato in a sunny windowsill and expect good quality ripening -- better to let them ripen in their own time. I have often saved seeds from fruit picked mature green and ripened inside and had good germination. For seed saving, though, I am particularly careful to use fruit that hasn't been exposed to even near-freezing temps. Not saying it wouldn't work in other cases, but I suspect that germination might be much less. YMMV

newgardener_tx · November 10, 2014

Tuesday is the day. Mark before they die

newgardener_tx · November 10, 2014

Celebrity, green bean, Korean pepper

bower · November 10, 2014

I will say ditto to what JLJ has said. Better to ripen them off the vine than let them be exposed to freezing temps.
Best temperature for indoor ripening is around 60 F. They will ripen faster at 70 F but you will get more wrinkling and spoilage, while the quality at 60 F can be excellent. I have a room downstairs that is cooler and ripened most of my green fruit there this year, the difference with the ones I brought up to the warmer area was noticeable. But I would go for 60-70 F before I would put them anywhere that drops to 50 F or below.
The ripening process benefits from putting the green fruit in a paper bag or in a closed cardboard box - one layer, turn from time to time to check and remove anything that starts to spoil. The paper bag or box helps to trap the ripening hormone ethylene being given off by the green fruit itself, and thus it ripens at the right pace without losing too much moisture from being exposed.

Not thrilled about the latest 'arctic air' forecast. I sure hope this winter is nothing like last one.

AlittleSalt · November 10, 2014

JLJ, Thank you for all that info. The Jelly Bean tomatoes that I wanted to save seeds from are green even though the tomato is fully ripe. I read on many sites about Jelly Bean: that "Seeds are sterile or will not come true to plant." I put them in a jar to ferment last night, but I don't expect good results. I even wrote on the label, "Do not share or trade". I don't want to send out bad seeds.

Elliot · November 10, 2014

Pick all of the green tomatoes before the frost. The big ones that are showing signs of becomng ripe can ripen on a windowsill but better still, you can pickel them and enjoy pickeled green tomatoes all winter long. It is not hard to do.

November 10, 2014

28 degrees F predicted for tomorrow (Tuesday) night. Freezing nights predicted thru the week. I will pick the largest green tomatoes tomorrow and most of my green cherry tomatoes. The cherries will ripen quickly. The regular tomatoes will ripen in a cool, dark storage spot more slowly. I don't have as many green tomatoes this year as last , but will eat the last of them in mid to late December if they remain in a cool environment. Even the hardest green tomato usually ripens well in storage. The last to ripen do not have the great taste of vine ripened, but they are usually still better than most grocery store tomatoes.

Ted

AlittleSalt · November 10, 2014

I emptied our garden today. The one plant left is a volunteer growing 100+ feet away. After the rain last week (1 and 3-10") the plant has put on a lot of new leaf growth. It may actually be something like this -- it looks like an animal growing more hair for the winter. Tomorrow, I am going to pick the larger fruits and then shelter the plant loaded with smaller tomatoes. I am thinking of it as an experiment. It is okay if it fails as long as I learn and grow.

After experiencing fall tomatoes for the first time, I am left wondering if the best tomatoes to grow in the next fall garden - maybe early DTM varieties like Manitoba, Glacier, and Early Girl?

November 11, 2014

Most years, I get good production from my fall garden. This year, most of the same varieties seemed reluctant to grow from midsummer into fall. They just sat there looking good, but doing nothing. As a result, my fall production has been low when compared to last year. I hope to determine what made the difference between last year and this year.

Even my normally productive fall greens like Chinese cabbage and others have struggled to germinate and grow this year.

Oh well, I guess I will start thinking more about next years garden and less about this years fall garden.

Ted

Zana · November 11, 2014

About 7 or 8 years ago we didn't have a killing frost until November. So I was still picking ripe maters into November. When I figured there was a chance of losing whatever was left on the plants to the killing frost (and was going to be away for when it was forecast) I ended up picking all the maters on the plants that were bigger than a golf ball (except for the grape and salad sized ones). I had ever counter, kitchen and dining tables ...and even dad's regulation billiard table covered in newspaper and loaded down with maters. Everything was labeled as it was picked so I could save seeds too. Must have been the equivalent of about 5 bushels of maters or more.

Came back after about 5 days, some had ripened, some were still mostly white/green, some were starting to ripen but weren't fully ripened.

I made up about 50L of sauces that year - dividing them by colour. Even made some that were only green when ripe! Finally after about almost 3 weeks, I made up mincemeat with the green tomatoes that hadn't ripened and cleared off the rest of everything.

At the end of the day I probably had about 100L of sauces, mincemeat, salsa and piccalilli from all maters.

You can try covering with blankets the plants, if you want to risk some of them out there, but taking many of the actual maters in will probably save most of your actual fruit.

November 9, 2014	#1
AlittleSalt BANNED FOR LIFE Join Date: May 2014 Posts: 13,333	Saving Green Tomatoes B4 Freezing This is my first year of having tomatoes in the fall. There is a cold front coming with low temps around freezing starting 3 days from now. I've read about saving green tomatoes by picking them and ripening them inside. Things like not saving blemished or cracked tomatoes are easy to find info on, but what I am not sure about is picking the size of green tomatoes. Can I pick all of the green tomatoes or should I only pick near fully developed size tomatoes? One Porter tomato plant has over 100 tomatoes on it. I quit counting at 100. I already have hundreds of seeds saved of Porter. So the green tomatoes, I want to eat them when they ripen eventually. There are a lot of green Rutgers, but I have a pack of store bought seeds saved, so again, I just want to ripen them to eat. I grew Jelly Bean as an F1. I have two vine ripened tomatoes, and I do want to save seeds from them. Can I save seeds from the green Jelly Bean tomatoes after they ripen on a sunny windowsill? Sorry if I misworded anything - I have had a headache for three straight days. At least nothing is showing up on the speelcheck r

November 9, 2014	#2
yardn_gardn Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2014 Location: Central Idaho at 3200 elev. in zone 5b, maybe 100 frost free days Posts: 77	Being from an area that might only have 100 frost free days means I've picked my fair share of green tomatoes. Be sure to pick them when they are free from any surface moisture. Try setting the lighter green to white tomatoes stem side down, not touching, on newspaper in a cool location. As you need them, bring them to a sunny window sill to finish their ripening process. Here's hoping for a home grown tomato at Thanksgiving. __________________ Happy garden trails, Dawn

November 10, 2014	#6
JLJ_ Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Wyoming Posts: 759	I picked all our tomatoes, except one variety, about Sept 9. If it had been just a borderline chill, I'd have left the smaller ones, but as what was forecast was substantial snow, (we got about 16 - 18 inches) followed by a couple of days where overnight temps were in the low 20's, I picked everything but the littlest nubs, and cleared out the vines. I put the green tomatoes on newspaper, preferably not touching, in shallow plastic tubs, in an area that is . . . 50-60ish degrees Fahrenheit most of the time. We've been using some, roasting/freezing the others, as they ripened. The last of them are ripe now. This happens every year, though not usually so dramatically. I've found that, unless I am going to protect the plants, and unless I'm dealing with brief cold spells followed by warmer temperatures, I get the best quality if I pick tomatoes before they are exposed to freezing or near freezing temperatures. They're best if not exposed to temps below 50, but I try not to let them be exposed to temps in the 30's at all. I never, at any stage, place them in direct sunshine -- they ripen fine without that, though I've tentatively concluded that the smaller ones may ripen to a higher quality if they are under plant lights -- light, no heat. The quality of those picked very small varies from variety to variety, but most of them ripen to usable quality, and many are as good as garden-ripened. It's important to check them regularly to remove any that are showing signs of going bad -- using them, roasting/freezing them, or trashing them -- depending upon their state when you find them. They don't need to be put in bags with ripening fruit -- that is effectively treating them like grocery store tomatoes -- they ripen best for us if just allowed to ripen in their own time, in the above conditions. Something I did for the first time this year was cut trusses of still green cherry tomatoes. (Not all the cherry tomatoes, just a number of trusses of those doing well.) Those I kept in bags, wide open, with the bags on trays in the same area with the other green tomatoes. They were just in bags because it wasn't practical to spread them out individually, and I suspected that they would ripen best still on the truss. Worked better than I expected, even with the smaller cherries on the truss, and would have worked better if I'd had more time to use them as they ripened. The one variety I protected was already growing on a frame enclosed in mosquito netting, as they were being grown for seed. When the bad weather came in, I added additional gallon milk jugs filled with water around their base, and put two layers of plastic over them, secured with clamps and more water filled jugs -- the two layers secured separately to provide dead air space between the layers. They had 'ventilation' areas near the top of the frame, on the east (most protected) side, that I could open on sunny but cold days, and I opened the plastic, or even removed it, on any days warm enough for them to be exposed. I just picked all of those and took down their vines day before yesterday, because of the snow and double digit subzero temps moving in right now. While they'd taken a little damage to the outermost parts of the plants when we had spells of freezing temps, and some fruit loss from the vile voles that found them, they were still maturing fruit . . . and blooming and setting fruit . . . when I took the vines down. Your climate is very different from ours, so I'm sure our procedure wouldn't work identically for you, but perhaps the above might give you some ideas. Edit: Just noticed your question about saving seeds. As above, I would not put any green tomato in a sunny windowsill and expect good quality ripening -- better to let them ripen in their own time. I have often saved seeds from fruit picked mature green and ripened inside and had good germination. For seed saving, though, I am particularly careful to use fruit that hasn't been exposed to even near-freezing temps. Not saying it wouldn't work in other cases, but I suspect that germination might be much less. YMMV Last edited by JLJ_; November 10, 2014 at 10:24 AM.

November 11, 2014	#14
tedln Guest Posts: n/a	! Most years, I get good production from my fall garden. This year, most of the same varieties seemed reluctant to grow from midsummer into fall. They just sat there looking good, but doing nothing. As a result, my fall production has been low when compared to last year. I hope to determine what made the difference between last year and this year. Even my normally productive fall greens like Chinese cabbage and others have struggled to germinate and grow this year. Oh well, I guess I will start thinking more about next years garden and less about this years fall garden. Ted

November 11, 2014	#15
Zana Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Southwestern Ontario, Canada Posts: 4,521	About 7 or 8 years ago we didn't have a killing frost until November. So I was still picking ripe maters into November. When I figured there was a chance of losing whatever was left on the plants to the killing frost (and was going to be away for when it was forecast) I ended up picking all the maters on the plants that were bigger than a golf ball (except for the grape and salad sized ones). I had ever counter, kitchen and dining tables ...and even dad's regulation billiard table covered in newspaper and loaded down with maters. Everything was labeled as it was picked so I could save seeds too. Must have been the equivalent of about 5 bushels of maters or more. Came back after about 5 days, some had ripened, some were still mostly white/green, some were starting to ripen but weren't fully ripened. I made up about 50L of sauces that year - dividing them by colour. Even made some that were only green when ripe! Finally after about almost 3 weeks, I made up mincemeat with the green tomatoes that hadn't ripened and cleared off the rest of everything. At the end of the day I probably had about 100L of sauces, mincemeat, salsa and piccalilli from all maters. You can try covering with blankets the plants, if you want to risk some of them out there, but taking many of the actual maters in will probably save most of your actual fruit. __________________ Zana ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ There is a fine line between genius and crazy. I like to use that line as a jump rope. ~Anonymous (but I totally agree with this! LOL) Forgive and Forget? I'm neither Jesus or nor do I have Alzheimers. ~ Anonymous Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace. -- Dr. Albert Schweitzer

November 9, 2014	#3
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	I have been growing fall tomatoes for quite a few years and many years I leave a huge amount of green tomatoes to be killed by freezes. I have found there are just so many that I can handle dealing with in the green state. I like to pick about twice as many as I think I will use because usually at least half of them will start to rot before they ripen. Right now I have probably the largest production of fall tomatoes I have ever had but have only gotten a few ripe ones so far. If a hard freeze will hold off for a few more weeks it could be a real bumper crop. If a hard freeze is forecast I will pick as many of the nearly white to blushing larger fruits that I think we will use and washing and drying them thoroughly before storing them. We have already had at least two nights where temps got below freezing for a short time but the damage was minimal with some leaves being killed or burned on some of the plants. So far no damage has shown on any of the fruit. Most of the damaged foliage was on the younger plants set out in early and late August while my older vines seem more resistant to cold so far. I have made the mistake in the past of picking all of my larger green tomatoes because a freeze is forecast only to find that most of the plants suffered only minor damage but the smaller fruit left on the vines didn't have time to fully develop before the next killing freeze got here. I have found that usually it takes more than a light freeze to kill tomato plants that are large and mature. A heavy frost can do as much damage to foliage as a light freeze in many cases so that every forecast for near freezing temps has me praying for a bit of wind. It seems that the cold temps need to last for several hours to do major damage. There is a low temperature that once it gets down that low will kill them immediately but I'm just not sure how low that is but I think it is between 25 and 28 degrees but of course sustained cold just under freezing will do the same thing. Bill

November 9, 2014	#4
Cheryl2017 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: san antonio, texas Posts: 174	Thanks Bill. I am in the same boat as alittlesalt. I may try to ride it out then. We are going to get a freeze but hopefully for short periods. I think this polar vortex is going to stick around for a couple of weeks with high in the 50's and low in the 30's. Sometimes I have noticed being for to five degrees colder though than what is forecast. Decisions decisions.

November 10, 2014	#8
newgardener_tx Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: austin, tx Posts: 249	Celebrity, green bean, Korean pepper

November 10, 2014	#9
bower Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Newfoundland, Canada Posts: 6,794	I will say ditto to what JLJ has said. Better to ripen them off the vine than let them be exposed to freezing temps. Best temperature for indoor ripening is around 60 F. They will ripen faster at 70 F but you will get more wrinkling and spoilage, while the quality at 60 F can be excellent. I have a room downstairs that is cooler and ripened most of my green fruit there this year, the difference with the ones I brought up to the warmer area was noticeable. But I would go for 60-70 F before I would put them anywhere that drops to 50 F or below. The ripening process benefits from putting the green fruit in a paper bag or in a closed cardboard box - one layer, turn from time to time to check and remove anything that starts to spoil. The paper bag or box helps to trap the ripening hormone ethylene being given off by the green fruit itself, and thus it ripens at the right pace without losing too much moisture from being exposed. Not thrilled about the latest 'arctic air' forecast. I sure hope this winter is nothing like last one.

November 10, 2014	#11
Elliot Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Hicksville, New York Posts: 503	Pick all of the green tomatoes before the frost. The big ones that are showing signs of becomng ripe can ripen on a windowsill but better still, you can pickel them and enjoy pickeled green tomatoes all winter long. It is not hard to do.