Misc.
- After tomatoes are fully ripe, they can be stored in the refrigerator, but for best flavor, let them warm to room temperature before serving.
- Mark each plant from which you want to save seed while the plant is in full bloom. A piece of ribbon or stretch plastic tied loosely around the stem will identify the plant without injuring it.
- A sheltered, south-facing wall typically acts as a solar collector, releasing its heat at night, creating a shallow zone that is warmer than the rest of the garden. This is the perfect place for specimen plants which want a warmer climate zone than you have.
- To avoid mildews, always water the soil, not the plant or the foliage. Mildew can be often suppressed with a mixture of 10 percent milk, 90 percent water, which you DO spray on the leaves early in the morning (so they can dry out quickly). Any kind of milk will do, including powdered.
- Ripening and Harvesting Tomatoes
A. Getting Them to Turn Red: The red color of tomatoes won't form when temperatures are above 86oF. So, if you live where the summers get quite hot, leaving tomatoes on the vine may give them a yellowish orange look. It's probably better to pick them in the pink stage and let them ripen indoors in cooler temperatures. Tomatoes need warmth, not light, to ripen, so there's no need to put them on a sunny windowsill. Place them out of direct sunlight - even in a dark cupboard - where the temperature is 65 to 70F.
B. Frost-Time Harvest: Tomatoes succumb to frost, but don't panic when the weatherman predicts the first one and your tomato vines are still loaded with green fruit. If it's going to be a light frost, you can protect the plants overnight by covering them with old sheets, plastic, burlap bags or big boxes. It's usually worth the effort because the second frost is often two or three weeks after the first one. If a heavy freeze is on its way, go out and pick all the tomatoes. Green tomatoes that have reached about 3/4 of their full size and show some color will eventually ripen, and smaller, immature green ones can be pickled or cooked green.
C. Hang Whole Plant Upside Down: Some people like to pull up the whole tomato plant and hang it upside down in a dark basement room and let the tomatoes ripen gradually. If you try this system, check them regularly to prevent very ripe fruits from falling onto the floor - splaat!
D. The Shelf Method: Another method is to put unripe tomatoes on a shelf and cover them with sheets of newspaper. Every few days check under the newspaper and remove ripe fruits or any that have begun to rot. The newspaper covering helps trap a natural ethylene gas that tomatoes give off, which hastens ripening. Some people wrap each tomato individually, but this causes a lot of work when you want to check for ripe tomatoes: You have to open each one! You can also place tomatoes in a paper bag with an apple or banana. The fruits give off ethylene gas, which helps to speed the tomatoes' ripening process.
