My Tomatoes have not ripened

Hey all,
Just wondering how everyone's gardens performed this year. I have had a small garden for the last ten years and living in the California high desert, I've always had great luck with tomatoes and squashes, in particular. To be honest, I am not a great or knowledgeable gardener, but it never seemed to matter these last years since my garden would just explode with tomatoes and zucs, many of which came back(heirloom tomotoes) from previous years.

Well this year is very different. I did my usual, I tilled in amendments prior to planting a mixture of small plants and direct seeds. They grew. But they did not explode, and now I have lots of greenery with basically no squashes and my tomato plants are low on fruit, with the strangest part of all, nothing has changed color, every tomato is just green and hard! The tomatoes have been on the plants now, I'd say, 6-8 weeks. This has NEVER happened. What changed?

I can tell you that the weather was extremely warm over the last 8 weeks, sweltering. The garden has adequate sunlight, although a tree does block some sun in the early morning, and I did trim it back when I realized it, so now the garden has normal amount of sun.

So my husband and I started to think that maybe this year was the year that the soil is just too depleted. Yet, we have some runaway tomoto plants, (seedlings that sprouted in other areas of the yard) that also have only green tomatoes on them.

I usually am making colorful pico de gallo by early to mid august and here we are in Sept. without a colored tomato or a zucchini to grill.

Anyone else with odd behaving gardens? As a regular here, I secretly wonder if Fukushima is affecting my garden, but there is still plenty of vegetables in the stores, so this must be wrong.

Anyone?

Ok, I've linked some pathetic pics, again, be kind when you mostlikely observe what is going on in my garden!
Like I said, my lousy gardening practices have always produced results in the past, just saying...


s1247.beta.photobucket.com...

Its nuts because I had issues with my garden this year too. I actually pulled a tomato plant earlier in the season because it had bolted way too soon. I grow heirlooms and this year it was Black Krim. Their progress was almost achingly slow and now that fall is rolling in, they look like they should have looked in july. I figured it might have been the heat because my other plants had a hard time too, particularly the cucumbers, which I had to pull after they succumbed to blight. I have been mixing a few cocktails for them and it seems to help a little. I think they know the days are getting shorter because its like they are trying to play catch-up now. I am curious as to what the colder months will bring this year. I was hoping to get some winter planting done.

reply to post by SunnyDee


I've experienced the same thing. My zuchini has hardly produced, my tomatoes aren't ripening and amount has been pretty minimal. Out of three pumpkin vines, I have not one pumpkin. My lemon cucumber has produced about three or four cukes. I thought I'd be choking with produce by now!

Put a couple of banana skins near the plants that will help them
ripen off

reply to post by SunnyDee


Not a clue as to why your tomatoes are not ripening......I live in Pa and my brother and father both got some kind of blight ruining their tomatoes......they are ripening nicely but the blight is ruining them...

BTW Here is a recipe for you if your tomatoe's don't ripen...

Fried Green Tomatoes

reply to post by missvicky


Actually I did get a few pumpkins to grow and 2 are orange, or almost orange today. I did finally get 1 nice zuc just this week, but left it to grow a little more, only to see it was eaten by my chickens yesterday. Forgot to remind the husband that letting the chickens out means losing some fruit, he forgets these things.

I did an internet search for non ripening issues and all I came up with is to pinch the plants back, but I've never had to do that before, so I don't think this is the problem. And like I said, I have some rogue tomato plants in some good earth around the yard, and they are not ripening either, meaning, it's not my garden's soil per se.

Originally posted by SunnyDee
Hey all,
Just wondering how everyone's gardens performed this year. I have had a small garden for the last ten years and living in the California high desert, I've always had great luck with tomatoes and squashes, in particular. To be honest, I am not a great or knowledgeable gardener, but it never seemed to matter these last years since my garden would just explode with tomatoes and zucs, many of which came back(heirloom tomotoes) from previous years.

Well this year is very different. I did my usual, I tilled in amendments prior to planting a mixture of small plants and direct seeds. They grew. But they did not explode, and now I have lots of greenery with basically no squashes and my tomato plants are low on fruit, with the strangest part of all, nothing has changed color, every tomato is just green and hard! The tomatoes have been on the plants now, I'd say, 6-8 weeks. This has NEVER happened. What changed?

I can tell you that the weather was extremely warm over the last 8 weeks, sweltering. The garden has adequate sunlight, although a tree does block some sun in the early morning, and I did trim it back when I realized it, so now the garden has normal amount of sun.

So my husband and I started to think that maybe this year was the year that the soil is just too depleted. Yet, we have some runaway tomoto plants, (seedlings that sprouted in other areas of the yard) that also have only green tomatoes on them.

I usually am making colorful pico de gallo by early to mid august and here we are in Sept. without a colored tomato or a zucchini to grill.

Anyone else with odd behaving gardens? As a regular here, I secretly wonder if Fukushima is affecting my garden, but there is still plenty of vegetables in the stores, so this must be wrong.

Anyone?

Did you start it any later than the previous years? As far as it being sweltering I know that tomatoes will stop setting fruit in high temps. Ripening I have no idea. Parts of what you write sounds like too much nitrogen and parts dont. No pictures? I know my tomatoes I usually have to wait what seems like a long time before they will start ripening. Then as it cools down new tomatoes ripen even faster than the first ones of the season.

Originally posted by remymartin
Put a couple of banana skins near the plants that will help them
ripen off

Funny! That definitely works in the fruit bowl.

I realize I can pick them and let them ripen on the counter, but my point here is, this is not normal.

Originally posted by winnar

Originally posted by SunnyDee
Hey all,
Just wondering how everyone's gardens performed this year. I have had a small garden for the last ten years and living in the California high desert, I've always had great luck with tomatoes and squashes, in particular. To be honest, I am not a great or knowledgeable gardener, but it never seemed to matter these last years since my garden would just explode with tomatoes and zucs, many of which came back(heirloom tomotoes) from previous years.

Well this year is very different. I did my usual, I tilled in amendments prior to planting a mixture of small plants and direct seeds. They grew. But they did not explode, and now I have lots of greenery with basically no squashes and my tomato plants are low on fruit, with the strangest part of all, nothing has changed color, every tomato is just green and hard! The tomatoes have been on the plants now, I'd say, 6-8 weeks. This has NEVER happened. What changed?

I can tell you that the weather was extremely warm over the last 8 weeks, sweltering. The garden has adequate sunlight, although a tree does block some sun in the early morning, and I did trim it back when I realized it, so now the garden has normal amount of sun.

So my husband and I started to think that maybe this year was the year that the soil is just too depleted. Yet, we have some runaway tomoto plants, (seedlings that sprouted in other areas of the yard) that also have only green tomatoes on them.

I usually am making colorful pico de gallo by early to mid august and here we are in Sept. without a colored tomato or a zucchini to grill.

Anyone else with odd behaving gardens? As a regular here, I secretly wonder if Fukushima is affecting my garden, but there is still plenty of vegetables in the stores, so this must be wrong.

Anyone?

Did you start it any later than the previous years? As far as it being sweltering I know that tomatoes will stop setting fruit in high temps. Ripening I have no idea. Parts of what you write sounds like too much nitrogen and parts dont. No pictures? I know my tomatoes I usually have to wait what seems like a long time before they will start ripening. Then as it cools down new tomatoes ripen even faster than the first ones of the season.

I started my tomatoes in Late March, early April. I'll go take some pics.

reply to post by SunnyDee


I don't know about California's summer, but sometimes a lot of greenery and few fruits can indicate too much nitrogen in the soil. It can also indicate too dry conditions, but you might also have cracking on the fruits of the moisture was uneven.

Here in Ohio, we had mildew of all things on the tomatoes we grow in pots. I tried to keep up with it with Neem oil, but in the end lost the plants about when we are usually canning tons of tomatoes. We had heat and drought here, and it was also hard to keep up with watering.

Sometimes picking off the first ones while green helps boost the plant into making more that will ripen. Hope the best for for you and your gardens, if worse comes to worse go to your local farmers market and pick their brains as they are local and can give the best advice for your area.

Its been a bad season here with root crops. Far to wet the seeds rotted in the ground, everything else has been
fine.
My Toms and Chillies have done well.

I have had the same issue here in MT as well. My heirloom Romas and Cherry tomatoes had no problem but the rest are just bulging with green tomatoes. So I did some research last week and found out it is probably due to the heat.

Ripening and color development in tomatoes is governed primarily by two factors: temperature and the presence of a naturally occurring hormone called "ethylene." The optimum temperature range for ripening mature green tomatoes is 68–77 deg. F. The further temperatures stray from the optimum, the slower the ripening process will be. And, when temperatures are outside the optimum range for extended periods, conditions may become so stressful that the ripening process virtually halts. At the same time, tomatoes do not produce lycopene and carotene, the pigments responsible for ripe tomato color, when temperatures are above 85 deg. F. So, extended periods of extreme heat cause tomatoes to stop ripening. The resulting fruits often appear yellowish green to yellowish orange.

I also read when it is too hot tomato plants go into survival mode and put more effort on root development than fruit so everything else goes on hold. I watered plenty but since temps were an average 92 the last month I think it was the heat.

It has been very hot this year but cooler the last few days and I have noticed more starting to turn. Keep an eye on them and should be OK. Do some Google work. Found lots of info myself.

My tomatos are ripe but about 1/2 the size they were last year. My cherry tomatos had a great year though. I got some kind of mold on the cucumbers and the pumpkins. Got a few cuce's but have completely lost the pumpkins

Tomatoes shut down production when temperatures are above 95 degrees F and below 50 degrees F. Maybe the same for ripening. Ditto what was said about nitrogen in the soil. Too much nitrogen will give big healthy green plants with little fruit.

Don't let your green tomatoes go to waste. Google for recipes. I tried a green tomato mincemeat a few years ago that was really good. Fried green tomatoes are ok too.

Hopefully your next gardening season goes better. I don't know if more morning sun would have made a difference, as they had adequate sun for the rest of the day

Originally posted by mistressofspices
Tomatoes shut down production when temperatures are above 95 degrees F and below 50 degrees F. Maybe the same for ripening. Ditto what was said about nitrogen in the soil. Too much nitrogen will give big healthy green plants with little fruit.

Where would too much nitrogen come from, the water? Ok, I'm gonna download a couple of pics I took, don't judge
me too harshly, I said I was not a real knwledgeable gardener, and I did not tend my garden this year much, too busy, but still, most years I am fairly lazy and it never mattered!

PS: with our heat, I had my auto watering set for twice a day overhead for 20 minutes, 6 am and 6 pm.

UK here...I am having the same problem as are many other gardeners with our tomatoes. It was even talked about on a very popular gardening problem over here.
Even the banana skin thing won't work. But the cherry tomatoes have ripened, but with an extremely low yield.
It's the chemtrails I tell you...those darned chemtrails!

Rainbows
Jane

My tomatoes have produced about a half dozen flowers - no sign of any fruit at all. I blame the weather. Maybe I'l get some for Christmas?

I added so truly sad garden pics to my opening post.