Today I will be picking all left over pumpkins and tomatos, no matter how underdone some are. With pumpkins I will leave as much vine on the pumpkin as possible and bring undercover on the deck. I will leave them there for 3 weeks to catch the arvo sun and hopefully sweeten up just a little more.
All ripe or having turned colour Tomato will go into the kitchen, the balance will be picked and stored in a box to ripen slowly or left on the plant and hung under a tree. Each week I will go through the boxes of green tomato and take to the kitchen the ones turning colour. I trialled picking a few earlier in the season when they were very green. About 75% of them ripened in the kitchen before some of the green ones on the plant. This shows that temperature is a key factor in the ripening of Tomato and a higher average temp in the kitchen must be the reason.
I will also pick all capsicum and watermelon.
Tomorrow I will plant garlic where some of the tomato are growing. I planted garlic in early May two years ago and they grew just as well as the garlic i planted late March last year, so I have delayed planting this year to allow more beds to open up.
And with the onset of the risk of frost heralds the Oca harvest. Oca or New Zealand Yam tastes a bit like sweet potato but even better in my books. And frosts are the time to harvest when the tops are burnt down. If you have never tasted Oca I highly recommend it.
Happy gardening.
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| While most tomatoes still seem to be doing well, it is there time to come out with the risk of frost |
You've answered a few questions I have in regards to our garden. My tomatoes are still kicking on although with 3C this morning and a moderate frost risk... Still, there's no early morning sun due to some tall trees that shade out that first sunlight so they get to stay a little longer. I'm planning to turn all the green ones into green tomato chutney rather than hang them for ripening. I've heard the flavour is lacking when they're hung to ripen so figured I'd go the chutney route instead. :)
ReplyDeleteMy pumpkins are still looking awfully green and I know they don't ripen off the vine but I wasn't sure where we go from here. You've answered that. The crazy plant decided to throw out a few more female flowers though which I only wish it had done a couple of months back. I too am preparing for the garlic planting and I've thrown in onions and leeks, broad beans and planning more of them all. Autumn planting is nearly as exciting as Spring planting hey. :)
I have always hung the cherry tomato vines and never noticed a lack of flavour. They ripen based on temperature so putting them either under a tree/cover to remove frost risk and mature is no different to them maturing on the vine.
DeleteI put the big toms in boxes in the house where the avg temp is higher which aides ripening. Some don't, so need throwing but amny ripen. Can keep you in toms till June with fingers crossed.