Thread: Tomato Ripening
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Old June 3, 2010   #14
TZ-OH6
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Location: Mid-Ohio
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I generally pick at the "pink stage" for convenience sake, and based articles like the KSU link above thought that flavor would not be affected by ripening off the vine, but I ran across this study that show there is a flavor difference between picking at the table ripe stage and picking earlier.

http://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/datas...es/234-526.pdf


So I'll probably keep on picking most fruits at the pink stage for cooking, but leave a couple on the plant to fully ripen for fresh eating although I have never found the flavor of the room ripened fruit to be sub standard.


If the fruit is truly cut of from the plant nutrients by the time color develops, I wonder if it is the temperature (higher or fluctuating) outdoors that cause more sugar etc to form when a fruit is left on the plant. In the study the fruits were room ripened at 20C (68F), while outside temps here would be more like 30C (85F). It is well documented that cooler storage temps affect flavor, so why wouldn't higher temps during ripening also affect flavor?
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