When should I pick my tomatoes

Question

I'm new to Gardening. I planted a tomato plant in a terra cotta pot on my balcony. The tomatoes are about 3-4 inches in diameter at this point and still green. It is Aug 12 today. When should I pick them. When there fully ripened on the plant? I could use some advise.

Answer 1

Wait till they are orange, at least partially. Then pick them and keep them at room temperature. They will go red pretty quickly and develop the best flavor. If you leave them on the plant till they are dark red, the flavor is not so good. Never put them in the refrigerator, unless you like to eat tasteless red paste, like they sell in the supermarket.

Tomatoes will keep ripening on the plant right up to the time the temperature drops below 40 for the first time. Then pick them all and keep them in a cool dark place. They will continue to ripen and you may even have home-grown tomatoes for Thanksgiving. If they ripen off the vine they don't taste so great, but they are still better than store-bought.  

Answer 2

yes when they ripen  but you can ripeun them in a brown papper bag to  pick not truley ripe  and place them in bag and wait a few days a thell ripen..place in a coo dry place

Answer 3

wait til they get almost fully red....

unless you like fried green tomatoes....

a little green is ok just put them on a sunny window sill and they will finish ripening.    great taste (beats store bought)

Answer 4

There's nothing like ripe tomatoes straight off the vine.  You can pick them earlier, as long as there's at least a little red--if you pick them when they're completely green, they won't ripen.  If they aren't quite ripe yet, you can bring them in and set them on the windowsill (or really, anywhere) and let them ripen there.

Answer 5

the over all yield is supposed to be larger if you pick the fruit before fully ripening, otherwise the fruit production slows down.  Once there is any show of color in the fruit the sugar content is at it's peak so the flavor will be the same ripening on the counter as it would on the vine. The other plus is the quicker it is off of the vine the less chance of birds and rodents getting to them.

Answer 6

Let them ripen on the vine for the best flavour and remember to NEVER refrigerate them because they lose their flavour.