Tomatoes Until December!

By

valleyrimgirl

Dee,

If you mention the zone you live in ...

If I, living in zone 3, were to try to pick my tomatoes in December off of the tomato plants that would be in the garden...I would be picking frozen tomatoes off a plant that might have 6 to 12 inches of snow on it. Here in zone 3, I am doing good to have tomatoes in the garden yet in the middle to end of September.

Just like "badwater" I take my tomatoes inside. I have some large peat planters, which I place in the corner of the kitchen and fill with tomatoes. They need to be able to ripen in a warm area and have air circulation, just as if they were in the garden. When I have had a lot of trouble with blight and disease on the plants I have washed the green tomatoes with a mild bleach/water solution to clean the tomatoes so the bacteria are no longer before I put them in boxes or containers to ripen.

By

badwater

Hi, another way of keeping tomatoes till Dec. is to pick them all before it frosts. Take them inside and place in boxes, place the tomatoes in layers with newspaper between each layer. Check them every few days to pick out the ripe ones. We've done this. It worked beautifully.