Sometimes it feels like a lifetime waiting for tomatoes to ripen to red especially when they were sown in January or February and now it’s Late July and you can’t wait any longer! However all hope is not lost, there are 3 things you can do start the process of turning green tomatoes red.

3 Top Tips to get Tomatoes to turn Red

1. Remove the top shoot

So you tomatoes have formed and the plant (if you are growing vine, or upright tomatoes) is still trying to reach the sky. You should now cut off the growing tip which is at the top of the main stem. The tip should only be approx 3cm of main stem at the top of the plant.

Now the top shoot has been removed, this is now tells the plant to put more energy into making the fruit.

2. Feed plants with Tomato Fertilizer

When your tomatoes have formed, this is your cue to give your plants a much needed boost by adding liquid fertiliser to your watering scheme.

Feed your plants weekly with tomato fertiliser, you usually pour some in a watering can (read the instructions on your bottle).

The reason you add tomato fertiliser is because the plant would have used all the nutrients in the compost by now so it needs a final push to get the fruits to turn colour.

3. Add a just turned Red Tomato to the top of the pot

This is a good trick and I’m convinced it’s helped my tomatoes start to turn to red this year in the greenhouse.

I had some of my tomatoes from a different variety of cherry tomatoes go red first outside. I picked two and put them in the top of the pots of the green tomatoes in the greenhouse. After two weeks my tomatoes have started ripening to red.

How does this work?

Ethylene is the chemical that is produced once the green tomato has reached its full size on the plant. It then takes 20-30 days for your tomato to ripen to red. There also has to be the right heat conditions from 20 to 25 degrees centigrade for the process to happen. If it is too hot, it will delay the process.

If you add another tomato which has just turned red, it will be producing its own ethylene and therefore trick the plant into the ripening process and producing its own ethylene.

Other Reading on Tomatoes:

Part 1 📕 Tomatoes – Origin, Nutrition and Reasons to Grow.

Part 2 📗 Tomatoes – How to Sow Tomato Seeds with Short Sowing Video

Part 3 📘 Tomatoes – How to Choose a Tomato Variety to Grow

Part 4 📙 How to Pot On your Tomato Seedlings

💦 My Tomato Greenhouse setup with Growbag watering system– l’ll be using this again this year as it was so successful.

Top 3 Tips on Getting your Tomatoes to turn Red

🍅 And Finally… The Italian Job – Tomato Harvest – last year’s Italian tomato harvest.