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My tomatoes are starting to ripen but, now the rains have come and the sun has gone. will they continue to ripen? should I cover them with something? please respond, all tips are welcome
Thanks Evelyn

Once they develop even the tinyest bit of color tomatoes will ripen by themselves off of the plant. Low temperatures will slow down the process and affect flavor so moving unripe fruit inside will get you ripe fruit faster than leaving them on the vine if your weather is cool. The day before frost is expected you can pick everything or even pull up the plant and hang it indoors so that the fruit can ripen on the plant.

Hello Everlyn
Yes, you tomatoes will ripen but slowly. You can either pick them with a little bit of the stalk left on the tomato and put them near a banana as the ethylene from the banana will help ripen them or put them on a sunny window sill.

If you are going to cover them, only do it when it is raining, otherwise you will block out the sun and they won't ripen.

Cheers Keen Gardener

I would leave them on the plant, but watch the night temperatures. I'm in the mid/south part of the Valley, and it got down to 36º here last night. According to Accuweather, it looks like we're only going to have 2 or 3 more days this month that might really be able to be called "sunny". And as we all know, chances of sun after the end of this month are pretty much nil.

I recommend that you pick the tomatoes when your daytime temps stay under 60º. Until then, cover the plants if it looks like the temps might drop below 40º at night.

Hi, neighbor, and welcome to the forum!