My tomatoes are taking 'forever' to ripen.

[JaimeB]

I don't know how anyone else's plants are doing but I have plenty of tennis ball sized green tomatoes. My neighbor told me so far he's only had one ripe tomato, my sister in law has got the same problem. The only one of us having any luck is my mother in law.
I'm not using any food, much or fertilizer. Just letting our fertile soil do all the work. The temperatures have reached upwards of 100 degrees and I have the drip on low, just enough to keep the ground moist and prevent splitting.
Is anyone else having the same problem this year? Am I just being impatient?

 

[chris09]

Hard to say what the problem is, there is a number of reasons the fruit would take a log time to ripen.
You said

Just letting our fertile soil do all the work

Have you had a soil test recently? If not your soil my be lacking phosphorus or some other type of nutrient or micro nutrient.

How much sun are they getting (the plant and the fruit)?


Chris

 

[pebbles]

Mine are taking FOREVER to ripen also. I don't have a million tomates like I usually do and the ones I have are just about killing me with how long they are taking to ripen. I'm in NW Arizona. Had a long cool spring but temps are normal for this time of year hot and a bit humid by AZ standards.

 

[JaimeB]

@Chris- the fruit and leaves get full sun from about 8am to 6:30/7pm. Never had the soil tested but the soil in our area is known to be very rich.
Pebbles- same thing here! Long cool spring, but normal summer. I'm thinking it had something to do with the cooler weather, because now that the heat is picking up, so is the rest of my garden. But my pumpkins and corn.... Apparently the longer, cooler spring didn't bother them at all! I already have pumpkins the size of large cantaloupe.

 

[JaimeB]

One more thing I've been curious about. I planted most of my garden from seen and the packages usually state: harvest after 50 days or 60-70. Now, does that mean from the time of planting? Or from the time the fruit or vegetables set?

 

[curly_kate]

Mine are taking FOREVER to ripen also. I don't have a million tomates like I usually do and the ones I have are just about killing me with how long they are taking to ripen. I'm in NW Arizona. Had a long cool spring but temps are normal for this time of year hot and a bit humid by AZ standards.

I'm having exactly the same problem in a completely different part of the country - the Midwest. It's been so hot here we have steam on our windows at 8:30 am! The only good thing about that is that I'm hoping it speeds up things that have been puttering along in the garden.

 

[chris09]

One more thing I've been curious about. I planted most of my garden from seen and the packages usually state: harvest after 50 days or 60-70. Now, does that mean from the time of planting? Or from the time the fruit or vegetables set?

OK, when you see a amount of days on the seed pkt. like 50 days that is the days it will take till the plant hits maturity, so lets say I grow Roma Tomatoes and it has a 75 days (Days To Maturity) and I plant the seed in today then 75 days from now I should have picking tomatoes (under ideal conditions).


Chris

 

[curly_kate]

"Under ideal conditions" is key, though. I rarely have ever had something perform like the packet says.

 

[chris09]

"Under ideal conditions" is key, though. I rarely have ever had something perform like the packet says.

Its not that hard to get "ideal conditions" or at least close to it.

I have 12 week old Roma tomatoes that are loaded with blossoms and tomatoes now, I would be picking tomatoes off of themIF I didn't get Black Spot on them about a month and a half ago and I didn't pick all the blossoms off of them when I planted them in the ground 4 weeks ago. http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=31647

I would say that the soil around here is less then average and less than ideal. It is sopping wet in the spring so planting season is set back about 2 or 4 weeks (for the average gardener) and dry as a bone the rest of the growing season.
In fact the truck farms down the road have there watering systems on 24/5 this time of the year just to keep the soil moist.

Chris

 

[Carol Dee]

We also had a cool wet spring, now it is DRY! (Hot and humid on day and cool the next) But no rain. The tomatoes in the big garden are looking healthy and blooming. Now to just be patient! So when I saw these on the deck I got excited. It is a Sweet 100. ( Don't you love the spiffy red cage?) We are really happy to see even tiny greeen ones.

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