Instead of throwing them out, you can force green tomatoes to ripen easily. Our guide will explain ways to ripen green tomatoes quickly.
Ripen green tomatoes quickly: what you need
Basically, tomatoes need more heat and a constant humidity than sunlight for re-ripening. That’s why you can have them mature in dark places in the house. These measures help to: Temperatures between 16 and 20 degrees are ideal for re-ripening. The warmer it is, the faster the tomatoes will ripen. High humidity also promotes the re-ripening. Lay out the tomatoes with enough distance from each other so that they do not start to mould. Apples and bananas release methylene, which speeds up the maturation process. Just put an apple between the tomatoes. It is recommended to cut the tomatoes off the shrub and not tear them off so that there are no small cracks in the skin into which germs can penetrate.
Let green tomatoes ripen on the window sill
If there are only a few tomatoes that no longer turn red on the shrub, you can simply have them ripen on the window sill. Leave a piece of the stem on it and place either directly on the window sill or in a shallow bowl. Be careful not to stack the tomatoes so that there are no pressure points. At night it should not get too cold on the window sill, because then the maturation process is delayed.
Leave tomatoes in paper/cardboard/basket
If you have a larger amount of green tomatoes, you can lay them out in a cardboard box or basket and leave them in the heating cellar or other warm place ripen green tomatoes quickly. To do this, lay out several layers of newsprint in a basket or cardboard box and spread the tomatoes on them so that they do not touch each other. Cover the tomatoes with another layer of newsprint or close the cardboard lid. Smaller amounts of tomatoes can also be wrapped in paper bags or newsprint until they are red.
Let tomatoes ripen in an unglazed clay container
Clay containers ensure a constant humidity and are therefore also well suited to ripen green tomatoes quickly. To do this, first clean a Roman pot of clay or another clay pot (for example, a large flower pot), then water. Dry the clay container and fill the tomatoes. Cover with a clay lid, for example with an unglazed flower coaster filled with water that can constantly release moisture to the tomatoes in the pot below. Refill water in the lid again and again and check every two to three days to see if all the tomatoes are still in order.
Let green tomatoes ripen on the shrub
Green tomatoes can also ripen directly on the shrub at the end of the summer: you can cut off or dig the whole plant, remove the leaves and hang the plant overhead in a warm place with consistently high humidity (e.g. in heating cellars, laundry or greenhouse). Optionally, the plants can also be hung on an outer wall, which is still sufficiently lit by the sun and thus emits heat.
