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Post by scarfguy on May 29, 2022 19:47:41 GMT -5
My first harvest of golden harvest is about to commence! I'm thrilled!
This may be a stupid question but I really don't know...
From the time they turn yellow, how long do I have to harvest them? How long will they last on the plant? What happens when they go bad? do they get soft and rot on the plant? or do they drop off? Does the taste change? do they get more acidic the longer they stay on the plant?
I don't really want to harvest them all at once, I want to savor each and every one of them!
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Post by lynnee on May 29, 2022 22:23:31 GMT -5
scarfguy , something that I learned from this forum, is that tomatoes can be harvested as soon as they start "breaking orange" (changing color from green or green with stripes to red, yellow, or whatever). Once they start to change color, they will NOT get any larger, and they will continue to ripen off the vine without any loss of flavor. (The final flavor may fluctuate because available nutrients may fluctuate while the individual tomatoes are developing.) Taking the not-quite-completely-ripe tomatoes off the plant will free up the plant's resources, which can then be devoted to other developing tomatoes or to new flowers. Indeed, if you have too many developing tomatoes on a plant at once, the plant's growth may stall. (This happened to me with an AG Mighty Mini, which stopped growing until I removed some of the green tomatoes.) So it's a good idea to harvest AG tomatoes as soon as they start to change color, and let them finish ripening on the kitchen countertop or somewhere similar. Don't refrigerate them. Once they're fully ripe, the tomatoes will keep for a few to several days. If you leave the tomatoes on the plant to finish ripening, they will last a few to several days after completely changing color. What mine usually do, is split (still edible); then they become very juicy soft (usually still edible). Finally they become so soft that you can't pick them without squashing them. My tomatoes never change color all at once. I take them off in groups, put them in a small dish to ripen, and give them to my husband whenever they're fully ripe. He gets to savor them all, because I rarely have more than 3-6 cherry tomatoes ready on any given day! 
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Post by lynnee on Jun 7, 2022 18:02:23 GMT -5
scarfguy , today I found an overlooked AG heirloom red  tomato that was long past harvesting. It was shriveled up like a raisin or a sun-dried tomato. I don't know whether it was edible, because it had some mold growing on the stem end! 
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Sher
AGA Farmer
Posts: 7,025
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Post by Sher on Jun 7, 2022 18:13:22 GMT -5
That's one picture I wasn't expecting, lynnee! 
It's amazing how well those bright red little fruits can hide! |
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Post by scarfguy on Jun 7, 2022 18:21:57 GMT -5
That's one picture I wasn't expecting, lynnee !
It's amazing how well those bright red little fruits can hide!
Yea, especially when I'm red/green colorblind!
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Sher
AGA Farmer
Posts: 7,025
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Post by Sher on Jun 7, 2022 21:55:05 GMT -5
That's one picture I wasn't expecting, lynnee ! It's amazing how well those bright red little fruits can hide! Yea, especially when I'm red/green colorblind!
That WOULD make it tough!  |
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