During good conditions it takes about 8 weeks from flower to ripe fruit for large beefsteaks (80 DTM plants), or about 40-50 days once you see little fruit. Smaller fruited varieties take less time. An abnormally large amount of fruit on a plant or on a truss strains the plant's resources and prolongs development.

oh.. Thank you for the info. It will be cutting it short to beat the frost. Plus, the day light changes. This will be interesting. I've never had tomatoes "up till the first frost"
Smile
Sudzy

Hmm, that means that although I have about 50 tomatoes developing on my plants, my chances of getting ripe tomatoes from them are about zero. First frost is about 3-4 weeks away. :-(

They were transplanted the last week of May and first week of June, btw.

lilacs...gosh, I'm so sorry. Have you gotten any ripe ones yet?

You can pull the plants, hang them in the basement and some of the fruits will ripen. The other thing is to slice and freeze the hard green ones for fried green tomatoes or a green tomatoe sauce. I like green tomatoes and onions cooked until soft with with pork chops.

I like green tomatoes and onions cooked until soft with with pork chops.

Dang! That sounds delicious. Will definitely that at the end of season. Thanks, Sudzy

I've gotten about a dozen ripe ones so far. Three others are turning orange, and several others are pretty big. The Roma, Sausage, and Viva Italia are pretty productive and are growing pretty fast. It seems like almost every day I go out there I spot another one or two more of the little guys.

The zucchini has been producing. I've gotten six zucchinis so far. Very yummy!

I've never had green tomatoes. How do they taste different from ripe tomatoes?

Green tomatoes taste kinda like well cooked broccoli stems with a lemony tang? Go get yourself a med sized hard green tomato, slice it, salt, pepper,... and garlic powder maybe then and pan fry it in a little butter until mushy. that will give you the basic flavor. Real fried Green tomato recipies are various ways to bread and deep fry them, but the basic taste is the same.

Yum... A restaurant across the street from where I work serves fried green tomatoes. I was skeptical to try them at first, but I love them now!!

Tiffany