Please help!!! My tomatoe plants are producing lots of green tomatoes, they get bigger and bigger and never rippen, eventually they go bad. does anyone have any advice. This is the 2nd year this has happened.

-- Theresa Olechowski (snemomie@aol.com), July 25, 2001

Answers

two things that can be done. Stip all leaves off the plant to force ripening from shock (which will trash the plant) or pick the green ones before they rot and wrap each in a sheet of newspaper and stack em in a cardboard box and store in a cool dark closet. This pack technique keeps us with ripening tomatoes at the end of the season til jan or feb. Very few will go bad, just check the box every week or so for ripened ones or ones going bad.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), July 25, 2001.

Sorry, that is strip not stip . Gotta clean these keys.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), July 26, 2001.

Theresa - I was sitting in the doctors office today looking through the July 2001 issue of Southern Living Magazine. There was a section there on green tomatoes and several very interesting recipes. I thought of you immediately! The Green tomato marmalade sounded like one I would like for sure.. As they say, when you are given lemons, ( green tomatoes) make lemonade ( marmalade) (grin) Carole

-- Carole (carle@earthlink.net), July 26, 2001.

Are you growing tomatoes in the shade?

-- Mel (melkelly@webtv.net), July 26, 2001.

My mother in law is having the same problem for the first time. I dont know what is causing it, but if you find out please post. I wondered if it could be a missing nutritional need, but that seems off because they have been fine in the past.

Good luck, Tami

-- tami in wi (windridg@chorus.net), July 27, 2001.

Theresa, I don't know where you are, but I just came back from Pittsburgh where my dad has tomato plants loaded with fruit and no red ones. Until last week, they've had a really cold summer, and tomatoes need heat and sun to ripen. You might try picking a few of the riper green ones and put them on a sunny window sill to see if they'll turn red. Storey Books has a great little pamphlet on using green tomatoes. The marmalade is great. I also make a green tomato sauce that is good for a green gazpacho and other soups. Still, nothing beats a red ripe tomato.

-- Katherine (KyKatherine@Yahoo.com), July 27, 2001.