How to Ripen Tomatoes Off The Vine

You can ripen tomatoes after picking but it only works if conditions are right. Use these tips to know if there is hope for your tomatoes and how to help them ripen indoors. Fruit maturity, temperature, and timing all play a role.

For more, also see 5 Best Tomato Growing Tips here.

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Ripening Green Tomatoes

If you’ve got a bunch of green tomatoes picked from the garden, usually because fall frosts are on the way, you’ve got two options.

The easiest is to make fried green tomatoes.

But, if you want to see if you can force the fruits to ripen, use the tips below and see how you do.

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Contents

1. Ripening Green Tomatoes Overview
   1. Do tomatoes ripen off the vine?
   2. What about flavor?
   3. My tomatoes are green inside only. Is this okay?
2. Which Tomatoes Ripen After Picking?
3. How to Ripen Tomatoes Off the Vine
4. Resources

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Do tomatoes ripen off the vine?

Yes, they can. And you can help them.

But, it is not going to work for all unripe tomatoes—just those that tick all the boxes (see below).

Lots of people put their unripe tomatoes in a paper bag or box lined with newspaper plus a ripe banana or apple and—poof—a few weeks later they have nice, ripe fruit.

Others do the same and they stay as green as the day they were picked.

Whether it works or not depends on a number of conditions.

If you’ve got the tomatoes now and you’re ready to go, you can jump the instructions here. If it works, it works. You’ve got nothing to lose from trying.

But, if you want to know how and why it works (or not), keep reading. It’s helpful to know when you’ve got unripe tomatoes at the end of the growing season and you want to figure out how to save as many as you can.

We’re using the example of green to red, but it’s the same for other final colors (yellow, orange, black, and so on) as well.

What about flavor?

While there is nothing as good as a freshly-picked, sun-ripe tomato, the ones you ripen off the vine will be fine, more like the ones from the grocery store.

My tomatoes are green inside. Is this okay?

Sometimes the fruit will appear ripe on the outside but you cut it open to find it’s green on the inside. This means the fruit is probably not mature. It’s not harmful to eat but neither will taste good. The seeds provide clues about maturity and help determine whether your fruit can be ripened.

Which Tomatoes Ripen After Picking?

There are a couple of factors that determine whether a tomato can ripen after picking and how long it will take.

It’s also important to provide the right ripening conditions so we not only get red tomatoes but tomatoes that taste great.

Factors Affecting Ripening

1. Type/Size of Tomato
2. Maturity Level
3. Ripening Stage
4. Ethylene
5. Temperature
6. Darkness

1 Type/Size of Tomato

• Large, round tomatoes are good candidates for ripening off the vine.
• Small (cherry) tomatoes are not. They may not ripen and flavor including sugar levels will decrease.

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2 Maturity Level

The tomato has to be mature when picked to have a chance at ripening later.

• Mature is not the same as ripe.
• Mature means it has gelatinous (jelly-coated) seeds inside.

Once it has its seeds, the ripening hormones can get to work.

While you can’t ripen a tomato once you have cut it open, you can sacrifice one to better understand what mature fruit looks like inside.

In this next photo, I cut open two tomatoes.

The one marked YES has seeds protected by a gelatinous coating. This jelly-like stuff is a sign of maturity. It’s there to prevent the fully formed seeds from germinating within the fruit.

The green tomato has seeds forming but they do not yet have their jelly coats. That one would not ripen off the vine.

3 Ripening Stage

Once a tomato is mature, it goes through a series of ripening stages from green to red.

This is going to determine how fast the tomato can ripen, with the Green (stage 1) being the slowest and Light Red (stage 5) being the fastest.

I was interested to learn that Green stage 1 tomatoes can take the longest to ripen but also end up with the nicest flavor, color, and texture.

4 Ethylene

Ethylene is a gaseous plant hormone that plays a role in seed germination, vegetative growth, flowering, fruit ripening and more.

Because mature green tomatoes (stage 1) produce minimal ethylene, they are candidates for the ‘bag method’.

For that, the tomatoes are placed in a paper bag or other lidded container with another ethylene producing fruit such as bananas or apples to help trigger ripening hormones. I’ve provided complete instructions below.

But, once a tomato has some hint of red (stage 2 up), it’s already producing enough of its own ethylene that the bag method is not needed.

And yes, you can have too much ethylene.

5 Temperature

Tomatoes ripen best with consistent temperatures between 15-20°C (59-68°F) with 20°C being optimum.

When temperatures are below or above this range, lycopene, and carotene (both key to ripening) cannot be produced.

We often think hot summer days are perfect for ripening tomatoes on the vine, but once the heat gets above 25°C (77°F), ethylene production stalls and the fruit struggles.

When trying to ripen off the vine, our instinct is to put the fruit in front of a sunny window, but light is not a ripening factor—temperature is—and this can overheat the fruit.

High humidity can also play a supporting role but does not seem worth recommending here since it’s not really realistic or desirable to crank up our household humidity just to ripen some tomatoes.

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6 Darkness

As mentioned, light is not required for ripening off the vine and can inhibit key change agents. You’re better off following the instructions (below) and avoiding direct light.

How to Ripen Tomatoes Off the Vine

1Select Mature Tomatoes

Select mature large, round tomatoes not small, cherry tomatoes. A key sign of maturity is the presence of gel-covered seeds inside. You can’t ripen a tomato once it is cut open, but you might use one to check the seed development.

2Pick From Vine

Cut the tomatoes from the vine (with stems intact to avoid damage if you can- I use these snippers) or take fruit that has recently fallen to ground. There should be no sign of damage or disease.

3Handle With Care

Once vine-ripe, which is stage 2 and up, tomatoes are easily bruised and damaged which can cause rot instead of ripening.

4Prep Immediately

When tomatoes are stored first and then ripened, flavor and color are poor.

5Wash and Dry

Gently wash and thoroughly dry tomatoes.

6Keep Sorted

Sort tomatoes by color/stage. This will make it easier to monitor changes.

7Line Box

Line box with lid with newspaper or other absorbent cloth or paper.

8Keep Apart

Place unripe tomatoes in box. Do not let tomatoes touch. Add a ripe banana or apple if tomatoes are green stage 1.

Take a photo to record appearance and date. Close lid.

9Maintain Temperature

Maintain even temperatures between 59-68°F (15-20°C ), ideally at 68°F (20°C).

10Check Every Other Day

Check tomatoes every other day. Take photos to record progress. Remove any fruit showing sign of rot or mold. Switch out banana or apple as needed.

• Green tomatoes (stage 1) may take weeks to turn red.
• A pink tomato (stage 4) may only take days.

Resources

Listen

Good luck with your fruit ripening!

~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛