Pat Meadows wrote:
On Mon, 28 Jul 2003 02:05:06 GMT, "Cecelia Medbery"
wrote:


I have six HUGE tomato plants that are very weighted down with beautiful
tomatoes...that are green! They won't turn red. What am I doing wrong?



Same situation here, for the third summer in a row. I don't
know - of course - what the problem is in your case, but I
think I know what it is here.

I wrote to our extension agent, and received an interesting
reply.

He said (paraphrased) that the 'maturity dates' given on
seed packets are delayed by four days each time the *average
temperature in a 24 hour period* is below 70.

(I'd assume this cannot be a hard-and-fast thing, but must
be an 'average'.)

Well, we have cool nights here. The *average* temperature
for most of the summer *is* going to be below 70. Say, it's
80 in the daytimes, and 50 at night: this gives an average
temperature for the 24-hour period of 65. Ooops. Delayed
ripening.

The tomatoes will eventually ripen but this may not happen
until *after* the first frost date (first week in October
here) - in other words, it may never happen.

We are in the mountains in northern PA, and - for the most
part - have very pleasant, enjoyable summers. Non-ripening
of tomatoes is the price we pay for the cool summers.

My husband and I are building a hoophouse (unheated
greenhouse) shortly, and next summer I plan to grow my
tomatoes in the hoophouse to give them some protection from
the cool nights. I hope this will work much better. It's
not the only reason I want a hoophouse, but it's one of the
reasons.

Pat

Interesting Pat, I've never heard that before but it explains that last
few years of "late" tomatoes.

--
Steve (Mid-Hudson Valley, New York)