Are your tomatoes struggling to ripen? Blame the heat!
Summer heat may be the culprit behind this season’s unripened tomatoes
Why are my tomatoes still green? It’s late in the summer, and while the plants are thriving, not a single fruit—big or small—has turned red.
It turns out plenty of home gardeners are having the same issue this season.
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An Ontario tomato mystery, solved
Members of gardening forums and Facebook groups all over Ontario are scratching their heads over this late-season tomato stall and wondering what’s up.
As it turns out, it might actually be too hot for them to ripen!
According to Purdue University, tomatoes stop producing the pigments that turn them red—lycopene and carotene—when temperatures go above 29°C.
Experts say the sweet spot for ripening is between 20°C and 25°C.
So if your garden haul is looking a little underripe, your green thumb may not be the one to blame. We just need a bit of a cooldown for nature’s colour palette to kick back in. Until then, we wait—and maybe bookmark a few green tomato recipes, just in case.
Header image courtesy of Unsplash.