[PaulF]

This topic comes up every once in a while. Many years ago I would not pick tomatoes until they were fully ripe. Many times several fruits were lost because I did not get back into the garden in time to beat the overripeness factor, or bugs or other pests.

For maybe ten years of reading results about this topic and folks saying no loss of flavor from early picking and ripening off the vine, my results mirror that. I now pick when color shows a nice blush all the way up to and including ripeness...no hesitation and very little loss, either of tomatoes or flavor.