Monday With the 'Mater-Man • Color Challenge • RED • Tomatoes & Red Sunflowers @Grow-Pro's
I love to grow tomatoes and they love me back!
Picking some tomatoes last week and found this heart-shaped tomato. Not the first one I've found this year either! Here's another one I found recently:
When you love the work you do, it shows in your work
'Velvet Queen' - Sunflower
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Once they are picked like that, what is the best way to store them? How do they ripen once off the vine? Can tomatoes have their shelf life extended at all like onions, potatoes, etc. by putting them in a "root cellar?"
I don't even really like to pick them until them are ready to go to their final destination.
I don't even really store them longer than 2 days. They get picked to the specifications of certain customers (some like them in the breaker stage and some overly ripened). Once they come off the vine, they are best stored at room temperature. Never refrigerate. If they are not finished ripening you should store them stem down in minimal layers (1-2), in a shallow container. You can also place unripe tomatoes in a paper bag with a ripe banana. Bananas (one of many fruits that produce this naturally) will produce that hydrocarbon gas that will aid in the ripening of unripe fruit in the bag.
When you buy a tomato at the grocery store, it was more than likely picked 3 weeks ago, totally green and firm, then ripened with gas. Commercial growers use Ethylene gas to ripen tomatoes. And "local" can mean 2,500 hundred miles away from where you buy them.
Shelf-life depends on how you prepare and store them. I know people that can, people that quarter tomatoes and freeze them, make sauce, salsa, and marinara - it all depends. I freeze them whole sometimes..lol I don't mind. Some people think that's crazy. To each is own I guess.
Those are some great looking tomatoes! Thanks for showing. It's interesting how the tomatoes made that shape and not a round shape. Is that common for this type? What variety of tomato is it?
@drstevegilbert, thank you!
the top tomato image: this variety is an heirloom tomato "Abe Lincoln".
the lower tomato image: this variety is an heirloom tomato "Brandywine"
I grow predominantly heirloom tomatoes and many of them are known for growing all sorts of funky shapes. I have seen all sorts of odd shapes, but so far two heart shaped ones this season. Sometimes they grow this way because the flower blossom sticks to the bottom of the fruit as it starts to form. I usually knock the spent blooms off once the tomato begins to grow, but it's hard to get them all. You'll find heirloom tomatoes in all sorts of shapes and sizes. That is part of the fun 🍅
Lovely tomatoes @grow-pro.
How do you make those writings in blue color?
Thanks @yaanivapeji. ⬅︎This is a link
The blue text is a link 😋. Steemit search this: how to make links on steemit
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