Fall Gardening 101: How to Ripen Green Tomatoes Off the Vine

Many home gardeners associate tomatoes only with summer. And after Labor Day, many move on to fall things, like apple picking and leaf peeping. But the weather is still warm and there are many green tomatoes on the vines. What’s the gardener to do when they have mentally moved on? It seems like such a waste to compost them with the plants. Leaving them on the vine to ripen, though, pushes cleanup into late October, which adds to an already long list of fall chores. Can tomatoes be harvested while still green and then ripened on the counter? Yes, they can! Here are a few pointers to make sure you have the best chance of success.

Photography by Joy Yagid.

How to Pick the Perfect Green Tomatoes

1. Before the first frost (or sooner), choose fruit that is undamaged or has damage that has healed over. They should be firm and have no soft spots. Compost any that have open cracks, soft spots, or pest damage, which will lead to mold growth. 
2. Choose lighter green fruit and not dark green fruit. The light green can signal that the tomatoes are closer to ripening. However knowing what varieties you planted is key. Tomatoes that are green when ripe, or have green shoulders when ripe, can make this difficult to tell. You have nothing to lose by trying. 
3. Pick shiny fruit over dull fruit. Shiny tomatoes are closer to being ripe than dull ones. The dull ones tend to shrivel up off the vine. Compost those.

How to Ripen Green Tomatoes on the Counter

1. Inspect and place the tomatoes in a brown paper bag. You want to make sure it wasn’t damaged on the way from the garden to the kitchen.
2. Do not wash them. Some guides suggest this, but I feel it’s safer to gently brush them off with a soft cloth if they’re dirty because if they aren’t completely dry, mold can grow.
3. Place them in a paper bag and give them room. Don’t double them up. Do not use plastic bags since they will trap moisture and can cause rot. 
4. Add a ripe banana or apple to the bag and close it. Bananas and apples give off ethylene gas. This helps the green tomatoes ripen more quickly. Those brown spotted bananas destined for banana bread are perfect for this—put them in the tomato bag to help speed things along.
5. Place the bag in a warm but not hot spot. And check the tomatoes every day. The ideal temperature for ripening tomatoes is around 75°F. Do not place the bag, or the tomatoes themselves, in the sun. Sun-ripened tomatoes refer only to those on the vine. Depending on your room temperature and how ripe your tomatoes were when you started, you should be able to start enjoying ripe tomatoes between a couple of days to two weeks.

See also:

• Not Your Mama’s Caprese Salad: Making the Most of Tomatoes
• How Many Tomatoes Does It Take to Fill a Canning Jar?
• Gardening 101: Everything You Need to Know About Growing Tomatoes