Lots of green tomatoes on the vine, it is going to freeze soon, what should I do?

Question

I have a couple of big ones, and lots of small, about an inch. This happened to me last year in Colorado, we have such a short growing season. My vines get large and beautiful with lots of tomatoes and then it freezes. Is there anything I can do this year or different next year? Please help, thanks.

Answer 1

pull the plants by the roots from the ground. Shake off the dirt and hang them in your garage, cellar, enclosed porch. They will ripen then.

If you can't do that. Pick all the green tomatoes and place about 15 to 20 tomatoes in a paper bag (too many tomatoes and they will get crushed)...(it has to be paper) and put in a ripe apple.

Apples give off a gas that will speed ripening. After a few days start checking and remove the ripe tomatoes.

Good Luck

Answer 2

Pull the plants up by the roots and hang them upside down in the kitchen. The tomatoes will continue to ripen.

I didn't have a garden this year so I didn't have a chance to try out that suggestion that I heard recently. It came from a pretty reliable source though. I think it was a talk-show on gardening or something.

Yeah, I'm in South Dakota, and I have the same problem. Last year, I tried starting the plants indoors without much success. I'm going to keep at it though. July and NO TOMATOES stinks awful.

Tomatoes like the sun and can handle all the sun you can give them.

Answer 3

Same here. According to Crockett's Victory Garden, take the green tomatoes off the vine and pack those into a small cardboard box with an apple. Store the box in a dark, cool place (not a refrigerator) and you should have tomatoes clear through Halloween.

Answer 4

If you anticipate a freeze, try putting shopping bags over the plants, or sheets of plastic. You may cover these with a sheet of plastic. Just make sure to remove it in the morning after the sun heats the frost off the grass.

Or you could wait out till the first heavy frost, then harvest everything. The green tomatoes you can fry up. They're delicious.

Answer 5

Fried Green Tomatoes!

4 or 5 large green tomatoes, sliced about 1/2 inch thick
1 cup corn meal
1 cup flour
1tbsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tbsp. paprika

Mix all above ingredients together in a large zip lock bag, and shake well.

Meanwhile... mix
2 eggs, 1/2 teaspoon salt and about 1/2 cup milk, to make an egg wash.

Dip tomatoes into egg mixture after coating with meal mixture, and drop in zip lock again to re-coat.

Have a skillet with very hot oil ready. Test the oil with a sprinkle of the meal mixture. If it sizzles, it's ready. If it gets brown or burns right away, your oil is a little too hot.

Gently place the coated tomatoes in the oil and cook on each side for 4-5 minutes, turning once.

Drain on a paper towel. Eat and enjoy your green tomatoes for each new year to come.

This question to a southerner like myself, is begging for my answer. I love those things! If your tomatoes have the least little bit of orange or red on them, don't fry them. They have to be very green and very hard.

Answer 6

wrap them in newspaper and store in a cardboard box somewhere cool, like your basement. Take out so many at a time to ripen for use. This works well and it'll keep you in ripe fresh tomatoes for a good while. I do this every year, I've been picking mine and wrapping them for this too here lately. This is a way to keep them and still use them, they'll still riped once you unwrap them. Until then, wrap in newspaper and store them in a box or bucket in a cool and dark area.This way you can ripen only what you want to use, when you wnat them, not all at once.

Answer 7

I live in Iowa and I have the same problum, just pick them befor the first frost (I put mine in the basement) It is getting close for me also, The little tomatos I throgh away, but all is not lost, fryed green tomatoes are very good.

Answer 8

Leave them on the vine as long as possible, keep an eye on the weather reports. First sign of a freeze, pick them and let them continue to ripen indoors. (at room temp)

Answer 9

When I was growing up my mother would place her green tomatoes in rolled up newspapers. I remember that they would ripen but do not remember how they tasted. It's worth a try. Good Luck

Answer 10

You are in a kind of beat the clock situation. You could make salsa or chow chow. You can give the larger ones to neighbors who like to make fried green tomatoes.