Thread: Tomato Ripening
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Old June 3, 2010   #7
feldon30
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mensplace View Post
Have noticed that many here advocate picking tomatoes at the first flush of color. However, my whole reason for growing heirlooms and tomatoes in general has been to get the maximum flavor possible. Am I wrong in thinking that a few extra days on the vine to allow for complete reddening and ripening will yield more flavor.
We have had numerous reports of people leaving tomatoes on the vine until fully ripe, and reporting no noticeable improvement in flavor over ones that were picked after first blush. I have experienced the same when I have discovered ripe tomatoes which were obscured by foliage. They tasted similar to ones picked at first blush. And I am extremely picky about flavor. I grow for no other reason.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mensplace View Post
Seems that picking at first blush would not allow the sugars and acids to develop and result in something more like the supermarket style, bland tomatoes. Right or wrong?
I consider vine-ripening to be a sort of marketing myth.


The biggest causes of poor flavor in grocery store tomatoes are:
  • Varieties selected for productivity, early harvest, uniform size and shape, and disease resistance/tolerance.
  • They are grown in nearly sterile soil and fed chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
  • They are picked completely green (1st breaker stage), and shipped off to an ethylene gas chamber to artificially ripen.
  • They are shipped thousands of miles in refrigerated trucks.
  • They are then refrigerated again at the grocery store until they are put out for sale.
All of these steps conspire to produce a completely flavorless tomato.

In S.E. Texas, stink bugs, leaf-footed bugs, squirrels, mockingbirds, and unexpected afternoon rainstorms make leaving tomatoes on the vine until fully ripe a dicey proposition.


P.S. Out of curiosity, I took one of my best homegrown heirloom tomatoes and refrigerated it for 24 hours and the loss of flavor was shocking. It was almost as bad as a grocery store tomato.
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