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Old 17-08-2006, 12:24 PM posted to rec.gardens
Pat Kiewicz Pat Kiewicz is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 237
Default Tomatoes aren't ripening ?

Craig said:

I have a lot of tomatoes on my plants but they are not ripening at
all,
The plants are about 5 to 6' tall now and get full sun all day long.
The days have been hot and dry all summer and I have watered on a very
even schedule. The nights have been warmer then normal all summer as
well, between 63 and 73.

They were all planted about Memorial Day.

I have never had this happen before, it seems that some would be
starting to turn red by now.


This is an old tip that I've never had the occasion to test directly (but I
will comment more after):

Drive a small spade down in one or two spots around one of your
plants and cut a few roots. This might shock the plant into ripening
the tomatoes.

OK, this year one of the new varieties I was trying was not ripening any
tomatoes, not even a hint of color, even after all the others were doing
so. It was so full of green tomatoes that the stake was leaning over
threatening to crash into the fence. (I have electric wires at the top so
this would have been a Bad Thing.) I drove in a couple of small stakes
to tie off the larger one and stop the leaning. And shortly after that, a
whole bunch of tomatoes on that plant started turning red.

Now, I would think this was entirely coincidental, except for having
remembered that old advice. So I may have unintentionally confirmed it
works. Or, maybe not. I doubt it would hurt to try.

--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)