The theme of the day was preserving the tomatoes that we planned to donate to our local food shelters. With cool temperatures, whimsically late planting dates and early indeterminate, some wouldn’t ripen!

I searched for ways to make them go for ripe. We found 8 different ways and tried them all. It was shocking to reseach that a 40 degree night with 10 mph winds could result in frost.  With 46 degrees predicted and 12 mph winds, I was miffed on our tomato crop…I wasn’t sure if I should panic or rest. I took 8 attempts to save the crop for the locals and learn about how to save a tomato crop and then share the results.

1) We pulled them out of the ground and replanted them into pots in grow tents. This was tricky because touching a plant returned 50% dropped! We had little to loose and decided to give 2 plants a go. We had high hopes for the Brandywine and Golden Jubilee. After 24 hours, the Brandywine had some pink skin and the plant leaves perked up! It was on its way to a vine ripen! Unfortunatly, the Golden Jubilee’s leaves drooped. Well, it still seemed promising for a sweet tomato, compared to box ripened.

2) Pulled on roots. Yep, we seriously ripped some halfway out. Within a day we had pink Brandywine tomatoes and purple cherries. See bottom left in the photo! I’d have a photo of the Black Cherry, but in haste finding it split, I promptly ate it!

3) Picked all the pink and yellowed babies and paired them with boxes of green bananas.  Also, those dropped in their transplants, went there.  We have years of experience on this method and know it works. The resulting tomatoes have low sweetness and seem to miss the mark on ripe. The tomatoes are often missing the juiciness factor. However, does that really matter if your opinions are no fruit?

4) Picking early forces other greens to ripen earlier…yep, there is an order. They wouldn’t ripen at the same time. This method is highly recommended! Instead of picking nearly ripe 1x per week, we went for every day and tripled our weekly total! This was our top method for yielding fruit. If we didn’t go for 100% perfect, we got 3x the yield!

5) Broke our backs installing temporary grow tents. Naturally, it was in the rain and we froze. This method is a hard sell as I don’t believe a little plastic or blanket will improve the temperature. However, with my Master of Science Degree, I can conceiveably understand the math. I get it wth the equation of pv=nrt. Essentially, play with increased moisture levels and gain higher temperatures. Thus, the broken back was readily accepted…It was the most scientific explanation to extend the growth season. As you can witness in our photos, we also added green bananas to the tents to facilitate gas reactions. I also plan to add the heated hand warming, and I think they will make the world of difference. Play more with that equation and get results!

6) Trimming occurred…we focused on those with less than perfect leaves. It is obvious that the energy from the roots is sustainable. When you hack off the leaves, the energy is sustained temporarily and can force a ripening. That is a hit or miss method. We are careful not to trim more than 1/3 of the plant in a single haircut each week. We start with removing unhealthy leaves and later in the season, remove those that won’t contribute to ripening. That includes those outside the Burpee cage, we cut all suckers without mature fruit, or no fruit. To be safe, we hit the plant with Miracle Grow, after a drastic cut. After all, we could be totally wrong about the frost and will need photosynthesis. If all the leaves are gone, it will die and drop the geen babies. If it quickly grows new healthy leaves, it will extend the season!

7) Gas them all…If we give up all hope we will gas them in green bananas. Interesting, we go for gasing those on the vine. As can be seen in the photo, 2 Golden Jubilee’s were gassed into ripe in 48 hrs!

8) We halved the water! Our tomatoes were hooked up to an irrigation system. Since tomatoes like water, we have the length of tim at each on the 3 water cycles.

Overall, give any of these a try and let us know what works. With a super short growth season in our Northern State, we are all ears!