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Harvesting Tomatoes

For home use and for canning, pick tomatoes when they are fully ripe. You may have to pick every second day. Throw away badly cracked, damaged, diseased or misshapen fruit. Use picking containers with smooth inner surfaces and do not drop fruit into containers.

Tomato yields vary with location, season and variety. Gardens in North Dakota can expect to harvest 10 to 15 pounds per plant on the large fruited main crop varieties. You can often stretch the tomato harvest several weeks beyond the first of September or early October frost. Cover the vines with burlap or heavy paper in the evening when frost is predicted. Sprinkler irrigation will also protect tomatoes from frost. Start sprinkling before temperatures drop to 32 degrees and continue until the temperature is again above 32 degrees. You may also use row covers and tunnels to extend the season.

You can also harvest the remaining green, but mature, tomato fruits in fall to provide fresh fruit for later ripening. Mature green tomatoes hold and ripen best at 55 to 70 degrees, and 85 to 90 percent relative humidity. Do not expect to hold them for more than a few weeks.

For more information, call your county office of the NDSU Extension Service.

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For More Information Contact your North Dakota County Extension Office of the NDSU Extension Service for additional information or see our main NDSU Web Page for publications and articles on Agriculture, Horticulture, Youth and Family, Business and Community and Food and Nutrition at  http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/