My friend Sue was wondering what to do with green tomatoes now that the plants are died back from frost. If the tomatoes are not damaged by frost, go ahead and pick any that aren't damaged in other ways like moldy cracks, mouse bites etc. When picking remove the stem off the tomato before placing in with the rest in your basket/tub. That little bit of harmless stem often pokes into the neighboring tomato creating an avenue for rot to start. If you were going to process/use these right away, a little damage....no big deal. But green ones may need 1-3 weeks to fully ripen, so damage potentially becomes a bigger issue. Green tomatoes need to be to a certain stage of maturity to continue to ripen, which will be evident in a week. (difficult to tell ahead of time) They are fine placed single layer in plant flats in a garage. I usually line the trays with newspaper. If they haven't started to turn in a week they likely won't. Green tomatoes can take awhile to fully ripen once they start, so take care they are not damaged so they don't rot and ruin a bunch.
(yes,
one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch girl!!!) You can also fry green tomatoes, similar to eggplant.(like) Or make a green tomato mince. (don't like)
The plant foliage......DESTROY!!! Pull up or prune off at ground level.
Here are you choices
- burn the plant material (if you can)
- place in the trash
Do not:
- compost
- till into the garden
- throw in neighbors yard
Tomato plants, especially late in the season are disease ridden. Also, possible insect egg motels.
Mostly our issue in this part of the country is foliar diseases and viruses. Tilling under or composting will guarantee you to have these issues over and over again. GET RID of IT! You may not know what early/late blight, verticillium wilt, septoria leaf spot etc. etc. look like. Trust me.....if you have a garden......you got disease, it's that simple.
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