You're Picking Tomatoes WRONG: NEVER Vine Ripen A Tomato Again!

what's growing on gardeners it's Thursday May 16th and tomato season is here on the Southeastern coast of North Carolina on today's video we are going to dispel one of the biggest myths in all of gardening the vine ripened tomato myth if you are allowing your tomatoes to fully ripen on the vine on purpose you are making a huge mistake I'm going to explain to you when to actually pick the perfect tomato and after you watch this video you will never allow a tomato to ripen fully on the vine on purpose again if you're new to the Channel Please Subscribe and hit the Bell to receive new video notifications and check out our Amazon store and spread shop links in the video description for everything I use in my garden and awesome custom designed apparel and other gear your support is greatly appreciated everybody knows that the best tasting tomatoes are tomatoes that are allowed to fully ripen on the vine right wrong there is an epidemic of tomato loss sweeping the gardening Community millions of gardeners around the world are allowing their tomatoes to fully ripen on the vine and this mistake is contributing to millions of pounds of crop losses for no benefit in terms of taste or fruit quality now this statement may fly in the face of everything you thought you knew about harvesting Tomatoes but that's because the concept of the vine ripened tomato is a myth a lie and here is why first we must understand how tomatoes and most fruits in general ripen when a Tomato's fruit reaches maturity it begins to naturally produce a compound called ethylene as the Tomato begins to reach maturity and produce more ethylene it will slowly ripen the fruit after a period of time which will vary from fruit to fruit the fruit will eventually become ripe obviously larger Tomatoes usually take more time to ripen than smaller Tomatoes This is the natural process of ripening for most fruits bananas Tomatoes peaches avocados they all ripen via the natural release of ethylene so why have Vine ripen tomatoes gained the false reputation of being Superior ah due to grocery store culture for the purposes of this video we will break tomato fruits into four stages of maturity immature green stage mature green stage breaker stage and ripe stage immature green stage is the stage of the Tomato from the moment it pollinates and forms an itty bitty little fruit to the point where it reaches mature green stage this this is where the false reputation of the vine ripened tomato has come into play grocery store tomatoes have a long journey ahead of them from the plant they grew on to your dinner plate sometimes that journey is thousands of miles now tomatoes are extremely fragile and they bruise easily and a bruised tomato is a tomato that no consumer wants to buy because of this commercial Farms pick their Tomatoes at the mature green stage which is when they've reached the maximum size but they haven't yet begun to naturally release ethylene and start start the ripening process because they are rock hard at this stage they are very resistant to bruising during Transportation the tomatoes are then transported to storage facilities and distribution centers they are unloaded from trucks and they are placed in rooms where they are gassed with artificial ethylene gas this process causes the tomatoes to change color but it doesn't necessarily ripen the fruit then they are parsed out to your local grocery stores for sale this process is why grocery store tomatoes taste so Bland because they were picked too early at the mature green stage these Tomatoes will never get the opportunity to fully develop their flavor this unnatural commercial process is what has given the vine ripened Tomatoes The False reputation of tasting better now it is true that Tomatoes picked too early when still too hard in green will not be able to fully develop their flavor but it is also true that there is no reason to have your Tomatoes fully ripen on the vine in fact only bad Things Can Happen by allowing tomatoes to fully Vine ripen how many times have you gone outside to see your beautiful tomatoes blushing on the vine and you get so excited thinking just one more day and I'll be able to pick the perfect tomato then you come outside that next day only to find that your perfect tomato has been pecked by birds bored into by worms or slugs sucked by Leaf footed bugs or stink bugs or split in half from rainfall Dew and moisture in the air you just ruined your perfect tomato and it was all so unnecessary this is the unnecessary epidemic of tomato crop loss in action and it is all based on a lie everything changes when the tomatoes enter the breaker stage the breaker stage is the point in the Tomato ripening process where the tomatoes begin to naturally produce ethylene during the breaker stage the color will begin to visibly change at the blossom end of the tomato and work its way up slowly encompassing the fruit this is actually the only stage that is necessary for a tomato to exist on the plant to be truly considered Vine ripened that is because at this stage the Tomato actually becomes physically sealed off from the tomato plant itself the plant forms a cell wall that blocks the stems from nourishing the fruit which means that the Tomato no longer needs to be connected to the plant to continue ripening no additional flavor will be developed by allowing the Tomato to exist on the plant Beyond this point so why do so many gardeners vigorously claim that tomatoes that are allowed to fully ripen on the vine taste better honestly it's all in their head it's psychosomatic it is perception not reality people just like the idea of having a tomato ripen all the way on their Vines it's nothing more than that in reality tomatoes that ripen fully on the vine have been cut off from the host plant for quite some time so there's nothing occurring physically to make the tomato taste any better all all the gardener is doing by allowing the Tomato to hang past the breaker stage is subjecting the Tomato to environmental conditions that could damage or destroy it or make it taste worse it's also unnecessary and it leads to immeasurable crop losses for no real benefit so when is the best time to harvest a tomato well most Studies have shown that once a tomato achieves about 30% of its total amount of color at that point it is likely been completely cut off from the host plant so there is no benefit to allowing it to hang Beyond this point however some resources have claimed that it may take as long as 50% of the total color flush to become cut off so almost everyone agrees that once a tomato has achieved somewhere between 30 to 50% of its final color at that point it's completely sealed off and you can pick that tomato without worry allowing it to ripen on the vine beyond that point doesn't really do anything but put the fruit at risk for damage as well as risk damage to the plant itself as it struggles to Bear all of the weight of the fruit fruits at this stage are much less likely to be attacked by insects or Birds because their lack of color vibrancy does not attract them yet and because they are still pretty firm at this stage they are much less likely to crack due to rainfall high humidity or very dewy conditions so harvesting them at this stage will dramatically increase your yields and also dramatically increase inrease your fruit quality with absolutely no impact on the taste of the fruit itself so what does a tomato look like when it reaches that 30 to 50% ripening stage well it looks a little something like this this is a red snapper tomato which is a classic red beef steak tomato and it is approximately at that 30 to 50% ripeness stage now there is no reason why I should allow my tomato to hang on the plant Beyond this stage it is all already reached full flavor at this color blush so if I leave it on the plant all it is going to do is become more and more vibrant in color and it is going to begin attracting birds and insects and as it softens it is going to become more likely to be damaged by environmental conditions like humidity rainfall Dew and things like that so there's just no need in fact even at this stage it has a little bit of marring on it I think that is just from the wind rubbing the Tomato skin up against the branches of the plants you will get that little bit of marring so the softer the Tomato gets the more likely it will suffer imperfections so please pick this tomato while it is still in fabulous condition and if you want to know what it looks like compared to a fully Ripe Tomato this tomato right here is a marglobe this looks to be at probably about the 90% ripeness stage it's still a little bit firm so it needs maybe another day or so but that gives you a good depiction of what an almost completely Ripe Tomato looks like be uh next to a 30% to 50% Ripe Tomato now obviously we are talking red tomatoes here so if you're growing a yellow tomato a black purple pink striped orange tomato Etc you're going to have to learn through experience what they will completely look like at different stages but it should be fairly obvious it's not all that difficult to pick a tomato that is in the 30 to 50% ripening stage you will get the h of it very quickly so now this begs the question after we harvest the tomatoes how do we finish ripening them well it is at this point that the tomatoes have entered the ripe stage a lot of resources will break the ripe stage down into various partial stages like the pink stage the light red stage and the red stage but all of this is misleading as backyard gardeners we grow all different kinds of tomatoes not just red tomatoes we grow pink yellow orange purple black striped variegated speckled and even green tomatoes that stay fully green when ripe it's up to you to determine when your tomato is perfectly ripe but no matter what color tomato you're growing this is what you should do to help them Reach Peak ripeness off of the vine move your Tomatoes indoors into an environment that is room temperature roughly in the 65 to 75° fah range do not expose them to direct light keep them well ventilated I like storing mine on my k kitchen countertop as far away from any Windows as possible it's the darkest corner of my kitchen that I store my tomatoes but here is the cool thing did you know that you can actually control how quickly your tomatoes and other fruits will ripen because these fruits off gas ethylene as they ripen you can increase or decrease the concentrations of the ethylene gas surrounding the fruits based on how you store them have you ever heard of that old trick that says that you can ripen your Tomatoes more quickly if you put them inside a brown paper bag and add an apple or a banana to that bag well that is true and that is because you are creating an artificial atmosphere that traps in all of that natural ethylene gas that the fruits are producing increasing their concentration and speeding up the ripening of the fruits now this time of year because it's so early in May I tend to Cluster all of my tomatoes together with my bananas and my avocados on my counter because right now I'm only getting one or two tomatoes out of my garden every single day so I want to speed up the ripening process clustering your fruits more closely and doing things like putting them in brown paper bags or covering them with a sheet of newspaper genuinely helps speed up the ripening process of all of the fruits but later in the year when I start getting deluged with huge numbers of tomatoes I stop clustering the fruits together and I change the way that I do things then I start isolating the tomatoes spreading them out more to de increase the concentration of ethylene gas surrounding the fruits and I definitely don't put them near my bananas and my avocados by spreading out the tomatoes you will slow the ripening process now you can also store the tomatoes at slightly cooler temperatures to slow down the ripening if you have access to a root cellar or a basement Tomatoes can be stored as cool as 55° F but you don't want to go any colder than that because once temperatures reach about 50° or lower it actually damages the enzymes inside of the Tomato which ruins the flavor of the fruit that's why tomatoes taste so bad when you refrigerate them no matter what you decide though try not to touch the fruits together because where the Skins touch you could actually have rotting and bruising so always make sure that there is a little Gap and nothing is touching to allow some air flow through and of course if you find any Rotten Tomatoes or any other rotten fruits around the area remove them immediately now I know this video will be met with resistance from some gardeners some gardeners may say I've been growing tomatoes longer than you've been alive and I know for a fact that tomatoes that fully ripen on the vine taste better but I'm here to say that's just not true once a tomato exceeds the breaker stage allowing that tomato to hang on the plant any longer that tomato is no more connected to that plant than the same identical tomato sitting on your countertop and that's just a fact what it is is it's the knowledge that that tomato fully ripened on the vine influencing our decisions there have been studies where scientists have taken identically made meals but they've written the descriptions differently where they've said one chicken was free range or one salmon was wild caught and even though the descriptions are a lie and the foods are absolutely identical most people will say the free range chicken dish and the wild caught salmon dish taste better because it's the knowledge the belief that something was raised and harvested in a superior way influencing our decisions and we think it tastes better even though it doesn't so if you take those exact same Tomatoes you let everything ripen to that breaker stage whether you put the Tomato on your countertop or let them fully ripen on the vine and a blind taste test with no knowledge of how it is ripened nothing to influence your decision they will taste identical all things being equal in fact I may be willing to argue the exact opposite point I may be going to argue that the countertop ripen tomatoes will actually be superior because the tomatoes that you allow to fully Vine ripen are actually more exposed to the elements they're more likely to be marred by birds or worms or slugs or stink bugs or stink footed or Leaf footed bugs or something that would damage the fruit they're more likely to be split and rained on and water logged so actually by picking them at that stage where it's beyond the breaker stage and then putting them in a controlled environment indoors they're more likely to be absolutely perfect and free of imperfections so even if the taste were the same the fact that you have a better looking tomato it would actually be texturally superior and texture is very important in our overall enjoyment of food so by following the ripening and harvesting tips outlined in this video you could be setting yourself up for dramatically bigger harvests because you're much less likely to take in crop losses from things like birds insects sunscald and poor weather like rain and wind and at the end of the day you will wind up with identical tasting fruit so you will have a whole lot more great tasting tomatoes out of the deal so everybody I sure hope you found this video helpful if you did please make sure to hit that like button subscribe to the channel and please ring that notification Bell so you're notified when I release more videos like these if you're curious about any of the products that I use in real life in my garden do grow tomatoes and everything else in my garden they are all linked Down Below in my Amazon storefront the video description so expand the video description click on the Amazon link and you'll see everything I use in real life and while you're down there check out my spread shop for custom merch if you want to support the channel thank you all so much for watching and I hope to see all of you again on the next video I wonder where my boy Dale is right now maybe he's in here Dale what are you doing oh no buddy you know you're not allowed to have grapes they're bad for oh thank goodness Dale was just drinking the peanut butter Lor oh that's okay buddy how should I have known that you wanted the peanut butter theur let me smell your breath I don't think you should be driving buddy Dale is not amused he was so nice and comfy and his Dopey Daddy had to come in and ruin his evening okay buddy I'll take your drink out of here here

Channel: The Millennial Gardener

Views: 138,780

Keywords: picking tomatoes, pick a tomato, vine ripened tomatoes, vine ripening tomatoes, picking vine ripened tomatoes, when to pick a tomato, how to pick a tomato, how to pick a tomato off the vine, vine ripened, grow tomatoes, how to grow tomatoes, tomato, tomatoes, garden, gardening, vegetable garden, organic gardening, gardening tips, garden tips, gardening tips and tricks, gardening hacks, garden hacks, growing, plants, vegetables, how to, millennial gardener, the millennial gardener

Id: FR1S3hPZEps

Length: 17min 0sec (1020 seconds)

Published: Mon May 20 2024