UK’s scorching summer has left many tomatoes unripe, green and not ready for harvest — storing green tomatoes next to one common fruit in a drawer will quickly ripen them and turn them red.
Monty Don has advice for ripening your tomatoes(Image: Richard Lea-Hair/Battersea Dogs & Cats Home/PA Wire)
In the UK, the optimum period for harvesting tomatoes typically runs from mid-summer through to early autumn, with the crop beginning to ripen in July and continuing through to September.
Tomatoes are without doubt one of the most popular choices for home gardeners, given their status as a kitchen staple. There are several methods for growing this vegetable — which is, technically speaking, a fruit.
The RHS states: “Tomatoes can be started from seed indoors or bought as young plants, then grown either outdoors or in a greenhouse, in pots or in the ground. They grow particularly well in a greenhouse, usually producing an earlier and larger crop. When grown outdoors, these tender plants need a warm, sunny, sheltered site.”
According to the UK’s leading gardening and horticulture expert Monty Don: “Tomatoes ripen best when the temperature is between 26 & 30 degrees.”
With Britain having endured an exceptionally hot and record-breaking summer this year, conditions would have proved too warm for many tomatoes to ripen correctly, and as Monty explains: “September sun is often the most benign of the year.”
Longmeadow, Monty Don’s private garden in Ivington, Herefordshire, is widely regarded as one of the finest and most stunning gardens in the country, and the horticulturist’s guidance is generally treated as gospel amongst the gardening community, reports the Express.
Monty has shared an expert tip on his personal blog detailing how to ripen green tomatoes following a sweltering summer, and the gardening hack is likely to come as a surprise to many. The expert writes on his blog: “Tomatoes are coming up to their prime harvesting period, but to extend this and make sure that all the current green tomatoes fully ripen over the coming month or so, there are a few things the tomato grower should do now.”
The gardening expert and former Gardeners’ World presenter notes that tomatoes, ‘especially if grown under glass’, may have stayed ‘green much longer than in a cooler summer’.
The horticulturist adds: “By September, the heat is running out and inevitably we are all left with green tomatoes that are never going to ripen.”
Revealing his top tip for ripening green tomatoes, the expert suggests placing them in a drawer alongside another British household staple and letting nature do the rest.
Monty shares: “However if you pick them [tomatoes] – either individually or on the bine, then put them in a drawer with a banana, they will ripen and turn red.”
Beyond the banana trick, the gardening specialist has several other techniques at his disposal to boost tomato fruit production.
Monty recommends removing the lower leaves from each tomato plant to allow the fruits greater access to direct air and sunlight: “The first is to strip off the bottom half of the leaves on each plant. This will let in light and air so that the growing fruits get more sun, and also the extra ventilation will reduce the risk of disease. This process can be continued weekly until there are no leaves left at all.”
The gardening expert also recommends reducing how much you water tomato plants, unless temperatures are particularly high.
He advises: “Reduce the watering unless it is very hot to avoid the fruit splitting, but keep up a weekly feed of liquid seaweed or, if you can make it, home-made comfrey feed. Both are ideal for maximising flower and fruit production.”
