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Ozark Lady
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Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2010 5:28 pm
Location: NW Arkansas, USA zone 7A elevation 1561 feet

It isn't unusual for temps to go over 100 here.
We normally plan for the August days, when the new flowers just will not set fruit. But, I have never noticed any problem in ripening fruits when the temps are high.

It is the norm to start more plants in June to just be coming into production in July and growing in August to cover the time when fruit just will not set due to temps.

I shade my plants, and that seems to help them set the fruits.

I refuse to grow green tomatoes, I want to have a way to tell when they are ripe.

garden5
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Location: ohio

I, too, have heard that tomatoes need sunlight to turn red. However, when I consider your points, TZ, I think you are right in saying it's a myth.

dfaber
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Joined: Wed Jul 21, 2010 3:16 pm
Location: Indiana

I gave my daughter a tomato plant in a container because she lives in an apartment. She put it on her back porch where it does catch some sun...and she has tried putting it in the shade. I gave it to her in May and it had two small green tomatoes. Those tomatoes are now just larger than a golf ball, still green and just stopped growing. They haven't rotted. The plant looks fine. She repotted the plant in a larger container and used a potting soil for vegetables that has Miracle Gro in it. We have had a very hot summer. What could she try to get this plant to grow these tomatoes and possibly produce more!

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rainbowgardener
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Location: TN/GA 7b

Tomatoes are basically full sun plants. When it is super hot and they are frying it helps to filter the sun a bit (shade cloth), but they still need lots of hours of sunshine. Doesn't sound like her plant is getting enough sun. Can't grow tomatoes in the shade.

Is larger container at least 5 gallons?

The Miracle Grow for veggies is probably pretty high in nitrogen, which encourages leafy growth at the expense of fruiting. Try tomato tone or something like that, that has high middle number in the NPK formula, like 5-10 -10 or even more so. Bone meal is a good source of phosphorus, to help balance out too much nitrogen.

Some people swear by putting a bit of Epsom salts in the pot. I haven't tried it myself, being an organic gardener, but it is frequently recommended and growing in a container isn't a natural system anyway.

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gixxerific
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Location: Wentzville, MO (Just West oF St. Louis) Zone 5B

RBG When I grow in pots I feel the same way. the nutrients wash away so fast. There is not a real worry about screwing up your entire ecosystem so I believe the "Organic" rules can be stretched a little. Now let's not go crazy and break out the Sevin or anything. But fertilizing I think can be a bit more or should I say less organic.

What am I trying to say maybe the blue goo or epsom salt might be tolerated in such an environment. But here is still the good 'ol bone meal and blood meal type ferts as well.

Are you confused now I am. :lol:

dsoelter
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I have two very large pots, side by side on the back deck with one sungold cherry in each pot. Both plants have grown huge, and are producing heavily. On one plant the tomatos are turning golden and tasty. On the other, not a single tomato has ripened yet. Any reason what would cause only one to be retarded? Fall has apparently arrived early to the Northwest, and I'm hoping not to lose a whole plant full of green tomatos.

blondeshilo
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Hi this is my first time here. I have a mystery plant that has flowered nicely and is producing nice fruit, but they wont turn red, they get sunlight till around 1pm then they get shade the rest of the day, we've had plenty of rain. I am in SE Indiana!! they color of the bigger fruit is turning a really light green almost white. what can I do to get these guys to turn???

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rainbowgardener
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You can't do anything. Nature takes her course and nothing you can do will speed it up.

Sun until 1 PM doesn't sound like quite enough hours.

But you are almost there. Once you get to pale green/ almost white, it will break color probably within the next three days. Then another five days (ish) from showing color to fully ripe.

This thread https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... ne#p358787

has a link to a really nice time line of the development of tomatoes.

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

This is true -- the color change you describe means it's getting ready to finish changing color....

But remember, too that there are tomatoes that ripen to OTHER colors than red. When they ripen, in addition to red tomatoes, I will have pink, dark pink (usually called "purple"), dark/maroon red, brown and green (usually called "black"), yellow, orange, Ivory (called "white"), green when ripe, pink with dark purple/nearly black shoulders (top), Ivory with purple shoulders, red with black shoulders....

And some of these will be striped, and some will be bi- and tri- colored meaning more than one color inside usually showing up as different exterior color at blossom rend.

I'm also hoping I am growing a new "copper" colored tomato discovered by gixxerific which is orange and green.

imafan26
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Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Wow, it is an unusual problem. The only tomatoes I had that stayed green were green varieties like Lime Green Salad, Aunt Ruby's German Green, or Green Giant they are ripe when still green or greenish yellow. Long keeper can also stay green a long time but does eventually turn red. I have had a few of the heirlooms with green shoulders like Brandywine.

What varieties are you growing that stays green?

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rainbowgardener
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I think she just meant her tomatoes were taking a long time to ripen up. If you aren't used to growing tomatoes, when they hit full size, you start thinking wow, I'm going to have ripe tomatoes any day now, not realizing that it can take three more weeks to get fully ripe. That feels like forever!

Since she didn't tell us where she is located, when the tomatoes were planted, or what variety they are (obviously some varieties have much shorter days to harvest than others), we have no way to know if her ripening time is excessively slow.

But it does sound like she should have tomatoes turning color about now, like by this weekend.

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

My beefsteak tomatoes stay green a long time too even after they have sized up , but I never kept track of how long it takes to color up. I have to pick them when they blush anyway or the birds will get them. The cherries do color up much faster though.



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