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How to Ripen Tomatoes – 12 Ways to Make Tomatoes Turn Red

Are your tomatoes not turning red? Don’t worry, below are 12 tips for how to ripen tomatoes on the vine.

Most tomatoes will start turning red about 6-8 weeks after their flowers have been pollinated. If your tomatoes won’t ripen, it could be due to a variety of factors.

Green tomatoes can be the result of heat extremes, diseased leaves, and too many flowers, fruit and foliage. Luckily, all of these problems are solvable!

Keep reading to learn 12 tips for ripening tomatoes on the vine. These tricks will give you a higher producing vegetable garden this year.

A cluster of green tomatoes on a tomato plant. Red text box reads How to ripen tomatoes on the vine. 13 easy steps to take for red tomatoes.

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How to ripen tomatoes on the vine

Nothing is quite as frustrating as tomato plants full of green tomatoes that refuse to turn red!

If you are tired of eating fried green tomatoes at the end of each growing season, the tips below will teach you how to ripen tomatoes more quickly.

Bunch of tomatoes starting to ripen on the vine.

Top your tomato plants to ripen fruit

Topping is a term for cutting off the main stem of your indeterminate tomato plant. This helps to control its growth, ripen fruit, and produce larger fruit because the plant will use its energy to ripen existing fruit rather than producing more. 

Indeterminate tomato plants will continue growing until frost kills them, resulting in some of the tomatoes not ripening before the cold front arrives.

Find out more about topping tomato plants here and learn how to use the topped-off part of the stem to propagate new tomato plants

Hand holding shears to top a tomato plant to encourage fruit ripeness.

Add shade to tomato plants in hot temperatures

High temperatures can be a reason for tomatoes staying green.

Carotene and lycopene, which are needed for ripening tomatoes, stop being produced above 85°F (29.4°C), causing the fruit to stop ripening.

While we can’t change the temperature, adding some shade over your tomato plants will help lower the temperature around them. 

Ideally, you can place your plants in an area that gets sunlight early in the morning and shade later in the afternoon. If you can’t do this, you can place a plant umbrella over the plants to lower the temperature.
Tomatoes ripening on the vine in a shady garden spot.

Cover the plants at night

Lycopene and carotene, which are needed for ripening, also stops being produced when the temperature falls below 50°F (10°C).

If you expect nighttime temperatures below 50°F (10°C) in your area, you should cover your tomato plants at night. This keeps your plants in their ideal temperature range which will allow the fruit to continue ripening.

Tomato plants covered with light sheets in a garden bed with flowers.

Harvest tomatoes regularly to encourage ripening

Pick any existing fruit, and trim their supporting vines, as soon as the tomatoes get a tinge of color. This allows the plant to focus it’s energy on the remaining green tomatoes, making them grow larger and redder more quickly.

Any slightly ripe fruit that you harvest will continue ripening indoors.

Hand picking a ripe tomato from the vine.

Pinch off suckers on tomatoes

Tomato suckers are small shoots that grow in the area where the stem and branch of a tomato plant meet. These suckers won’t harm the plant but, if left to grow, they can make the plant quite large and hard to manage.

A plant with lots of suckers often has fruit that won’t ripen well since it has so many tomatoes on it.

Pinching off tomato suckers is a trick for getting tomatoes to ripen because it sends plant’s energy towards the remaining fruit. 

A hand pinching off a sucker on a tomato plant.

Remove tomato plant flowers to send energy to the green tomatoes

As we have learned, it takes several weeks for tomatoes to ripen after the flowers have been pollinated.

In late summer, the flowers on your tomato plant won’t have time to produce mature fruit. Pinch off the remaining flowers so your plant will ripening the existing green fruit.

Hand picking flowers from a tomato plant

Slow down on watering tomato plants to encourage ripening

The amount of water a tomato plant needs depends on where it is in the growth cycle. During periods of rapid growth, the plant will wilt quickly if there isn’t enough water.

However, when the temperatures are high, the plant growth slows and the need for water is also reduced. You can use this to your advantage when you are trying to encourage tomatoes to turn red.

Reducing the amount of water you give a tomato plant channels the plant’s energy into ripening the fruit rather than producing new growth.

Watering can on a table in a patio, next to a tomato plant with red tomatoes on it.

Cut off any diseased leaves

To ripen fruit, the plant needs to be in good condition. If it has yellowed leaves, black spots on leaves, or any diseased leaves, the plant will send its energy to these areas instead of trying to ripen the fruit.

Check your plant regularly to see if any of these conditions exist. Remove the infected leaves as soon as possible when you spot them.

A tomato plant with yellow and curling leaves with spots on them as well as unripe green tomatoes.

Prune some of the healthy leaves

It is not just diseased leaves that should be pruned to encourage tomato ripening. Trimming some of the healthy leaves also helps the green tomatoes ripen more quickly.

Note: You should never cut off all of the leaves, even when you are at the end of the growing season because it can kill the plant. A good rule of thumb with any plant is to prune about a third of the leaves.

Man pruning tomato plants to help tomatoes ripen on the vine

Remove any tiny tomatoes

Small, firm, tomatoes won’t have time to ripen in late summer before the frost kills the plant. 

Remove any small tomatoes and let the plant send its energy to the larger fruit that will have a chance to ripen.

Immature tomatoes on a garden paver surrounded by mulch that have been cut off a tomato plant.

Too much fruit? Harvest it now!

If fall is approaching, and you still have a heavy crop of tomatoes on the vine, pick a few of the tomatoes that are turning pink. This allows the green tomatoes to ripen more quickly on the vine.

Bring in the tomatoes you’ve harvested inside and place them on a sunny windowsill (or in a brown paper bag on the counter) to ripen them.

Green tomatoes ripening on the vine.

Hang the plant upside down to ripen the green tomatoes

If fall is approaching and you have tried all the tips above for ripening the tomatoes on the vine, but the fruit is still green, there is one last resort you can try.

Pull out the entire plant and hang it upside down in a garage, greenhouse, or shed where it will be protected from the elements and cooler weather.

Most of the fruit that you hang upside down will ripen. They may not taste as great as the vine ripened tomatoes, but it’s better than throwing them on the compost pile!

Bunch of green tomatoes on vines hanging upside down from a shutter.

Share this post about ripening tomatoes on the vine on Twitter

If you enjoyed learning how to make your green tomatoes turn red, why not share this post with a friend? Here is a tweet to get you started:

Do you have lots of green tomatoes in your garden? Learn how to ripen tomatoes on the vine more quickly on The Gardening Cook. #greentomatoes #ripetomatoes 🍅🍅🍅 Share on X

Pin this post for ripening tomatoes on the vine

Would you like a reminder of this post about how to ripen green tomatoes while they are still growing? Pin this image to one of your gardening boards on Pinterest so that you can easily find it later.

Collage with green tomatoes on the top and ripening tomatoes on the bottom. Red text box reads 12 ways to ripen tomatoes.

 

Admin note: this post explaining how to ripen tomatoes on the vine first appeared on the blog in August of 2014. I have updated the post to add all new photos, more tips, a video and a printable for you to enjoy.

Tomato ripening printable

Get the tomato ripening printable here, and add it to your gardening journal. You can also print it out from the card below in a smaller size.

A pink page showing a list of 12 tips for ripening tomatoes on the vine.

Yield: 1 printable of tips for vine ripened tomatoes

Printable - Ripening Tomatoes on the Vine

Tomatoes ripening on the vine.

Print out the photo below and add it to your gardening journal. It gives 12 tips for ripening green tomatoes on the vine.

Active Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes
Difficulty easy
Estimated Cost $1

Materials

  • Printer paper

Tools

  • Computer
  • Printer

Instructions

  1. Load the paper into your printer.
  2. Choose portrait layout and if possible, "fit to page" in your settings.
  3. Print the tips for ripening tomatoes and add them to your gardening journal.

Notes

A pink page showing a list of 12 tips for ripening tomatoes on the vine.

Did you make this project?

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Anneliese Merkus

Sunday 27th of August 2023

Thank you! This confirmed my list of things to do to ripen tomatoes. Also thank you for the recipes for green tomatoes. You are the best! 🍅

J

Tuesday 4th of July 2023

Thank you for the info!

Randy Lyon

Monday 11th of August 2014

Carol, Fantastic tips! I share your thought about not wanting to let my garden's bounty go to waste! I have been dehydrating foods for over 30 years, and just recently discovered that my husband will eat dried tomatoes like they are candy! He loves to grab a small handful on-the-go. I use grape tomatoes for full flavor, and since they are now in full production, I can pick them every day and not let any go to waste. Slice them in half, place them on the dehydrator tray, lightly salt and pepper them, and in they go at 140 degrees for about 5 hours. Yum!

VICTOR BREACH

Wednesday 12th of January 2022

@admin, Hi Carol, Just read your very interesting article on ripening toms. Can you advise if the ambient temp has reached over 85f does the ripening stop forever. If I lower the temperature with shade will they then re-start their process to ripen?

admin

Monday 11th of August 2014

Hi Randy. What a wonderful tip! I'll add it to the article so that other people can try the tip to. (I'll give you a shout out! I don't suppose you have a photo of the dried tomatoes do you? Would love to add that too. Thanks for visiting! Carol

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission from the sale, but the price is the same for you. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

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