At what point do I accept my tomatoes will never ripen and make green tomato chutney instead?

[Hassled]

Is it now? I have several very healthy looking plants with lots and lots of tomatoes... but very few are ripening. Do I throw in the towel at this stage or wait a while?

[BarefootDancer]

I would wait as long as you can. Ripe tomatoes much nicer than green chutney.

[PrincessGoodLife]

have they been getting enough water?

The same happened to mine during the summer and then suddenly they 'turned' and haven't stopped since.

Green tomato chutney is lush, but have you ever tried making tomato jam using red tomatoes??? Heaven. Worth waiting for!

[Wilkie]

Pop the green ones into a brown paper bag with a rip tomato and they should ripen over a few days (tip from my Grandma)

[EmsMum]

I was wondering the same thing - think its turned too cold now. might be worth bringing in and putting on sunny windowledge.

In truth I grew mine this year as much in the hope of chutney as red tomatoes - I was really pleased last year, the first time I'd tried making it.

[jaynehater]

I usually reach the decision making stage just as they up and die on me.


Accept no advice from me on the topic of garden care, I am Evil Step Mother to anything green and alive.


Make some fried green tomatoes, would you, though, I've always wanted to try them as they sound in the book.....

[Hassled]

Yes, I've always wanted to try fried green tomatoes...except they don't sound quite up there with tomato jam .
Thank you all - will hang on in there for a week or so and will then go for the paper bag/ripe tomato idea (will be puzzling over the science bit of how it works while I wait for them to ripen).

[EmsMum]

I think the 'science bit' is ethane gas given off by ripe one helps the others.

But believe it only works if they are quite near ripe already.

[catsmother]

Most of my tomato plants eventually died from blight, like a lot of people's this year.

However, I did salvage one measly tea plate full of green cherry tomatoes, which all ripened over 10 days or so on a sunny windowsill.

[Dozeynoo]

I had to pick all my tomatoes just over a week ago due to a nice man coming round and laying a new patio for me.

They are currently all sitting in a large ceramic mixing bowl with a tea towel over the top on the side in the kitchen. Every couple of days I pick out a couple of the ripest to use. I haven't put a banana in with them as if the whole lot ripen quickly they will go to waste.