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HELP panicking tomato question

oldsalty

oldsalty

Have a great crop of tomatoes still flourishing but temp is supposed to drop to 26 tonight I still have quite a few purple Cherokee and big red's nice size but haven't ripened yet any thought should I cut them off and let ripen inside try covering with sheets help really nice batch hate to lose them.
Thanks
 
Sheets should help. I've heard it done but have never tried it myself. Depending on how far along the ripening is on the maters you could pull them and put them in a paper bag. That's how my grandmother has always done it, you could also add a banana to the bag with the maters. The ethylene gas that bananas put off quite a bit of helps to ripen the tomatoes or so I've read. I've tried it and it seems to work but I've tried it on tomatoes that have started to at least blush and aren't solid green. But it might work even for them. You could also fry up some of the green tomatoes if you like them. Good luck and I hope everything works out.
 
It depends, but mostly I'd say 26 = toast. Is the sun out today and will it be tomorrow and what are your highs today and tomorrow? If it's just a few hours overnight protecting may help if it warms up enough during the day.
 
Grow lots of tomatoes here and faced the same dilemma. I cover them with fleece blankets and it works well, to a point. That cold, though, I'd bring 'em in. Wrap in newsprint and store in cool, dark place. Had ripe tomatoes into January by doing that.
 
Down to 26 degrees, one sheet won't protect the plants/tomatoes.  You'll need a heavy fleece blanket or waterproof tarp, though if it were me, I'd pick all of the tomatoes and not chance ruining my hard work.
 
It's much easier to line a box with a couple layers of newspaper and lay the green tomatoes - face up - on the paper rather than wrapping them.  That way you can see if/when any of the tomatoes start to rot and remove them immediately.
 
Before we left on vacation, I picked all of my greenies, put them in one layer on newspapers and put them in the cooler basement.  Voila, 2+ weeks later, I have 80% red tomatoes to use for sauce or salsa.  Only 2 tomatoes had rotted out of 4 boxes.  Glad I took the time to pick them all as the temps here got down to -12, or something like that.
 
Depending on your location and temp/winds you might be able to cover them, though I agree a sheet won't cut it bud.  Catherinew's advice is spot on - several layers of newspaper and a cardboard boxes set near the furnace in the basement helped me ripen close to a bushel of tomatoes that would have been toast after our first hard frost. 
 
Better that than lose em all if the cover doesn't work.  ;)
 
Thanks gang looks like I'm picking tomatoes. Appreciate y'alls help!!! Marking it on the calendar pretty good run. Made it onto Wicked Mike's seed train should have a wild crop next year!!! Yyyeeeeeehhhhhhaaaaaaaa!!! :)
 
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