Lambada's Non-Ripening Tomato

Lambada

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Mar 4, 2004
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When you buy tomatoes here in DR they can sometimes be very green and unripe as you all know. With these there are normally 2 chances: they will either ripen up after a short while or they'll go soft and squidgy but still be unripe so you throw them.

Seven weeks ago I must have purchased a hybrid. It was dark green and hard. Each day I have put it in the sun and little by little we have had some change. It went from dark green to light green and is now veering to yellow. It is a little softer than before but still not ripe. Amazingly after 7 weeks it hasn't gone bad. I'm a patient soul but am now beginning to have some doubts as to whether this will ever ripen. And meanwhile I keep up the daily ritual of taking it from the kitchen to the sun, muttering vegetable ripening incantations.......... Maybe belief in higher powers is insufficient in the case of this tomato? Maybe it is just plain stubborn? Maybe I should be using the insights of behavioural psychology?

If it was designed by its maker to be a yellow tomato, wouldn't it go full yellow and RIPEN?

Now I'd be the first to admit that in the world order of DR challenges this cannot rank as primus inter pares. No way can it compare with Matilda's transformadora or dv8's purple-bottomed puss. But I was wondering if any of the lycopersicologists out there had any valid insights as to what I might do next? Horticulturally speaking, that is.
 

cobraboy

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Perhaps someone has a good Fried GreenTomato* recipe?




*joke about the chick flick movie by the same name ;)
 

2LeftFeet

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Dec 1, 2006
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Tomatoes ripen in the dark. If they are supposed to turn red-- put them in a paper bag for a few days and they should turn!
 

Rocky

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Tomatoes ripen in the dark. If they are supposed to turn red-- put them in a paper bag for a few days and they should turn!
It's not the dark, insomuch as the gasses they release, that make them ripen faster.
Any fruit or veggie will ripen faster in an enclosure, but it may also make it rot.
 

Chirimoya

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Dec 9, 2002
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I find that putting citrus fruit next to unripe fruit will accellerate the ripening process. But this certainly does sound strange - sometimes they don't ripen, maybe due to prolonged refrigeration when they were very unripe, but it's odd that it hasn't rotted either.

My only advice is - put it up for sale on e-bay as some mystical artifact.
:D
 

Chris

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Oct 21, 2002
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Cut it in slices. It may be one of the green tomatoes that I saw only in the DR ... green, but still sweet with a little tartness. Ripe and good! That is if it does not have the shape of some madonna or virgin ... In that case, follow chiri's advice!
 
G

gary short

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I find that putting citrus fruit next to unripe fruit will accellerate the ripening process. But this certainly does sound strange - sometimes they don't ripen, maybe due to prolonged refrigeration when they were very unripe, but it's odd that it hasn't rotted either.

My only advice is - put it up for sale on e-bay as some mystical artifact.
:D

Now your talking........you couldn't manipulate it into looking like a profile of the Virgin Mary???????
 

Rocky

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I find that putting citrus fruit next to unripe fruit will accellerate the ripening process.
:D
100% correct.
It's the gasses.
When I started in the fruit & veggie biz 15 years ago, you couldn't buy a red tomatoe anywhere, and we had to make ripening bins.
The secret was to get them all close together, to benefit from the ripening gasses, but not leaning on each other, to minimize rotting.
Sometimes, we would bag them, if they were really green.
 

Criss Colon

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Jan 2, 2002
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I Ate A Really Ripe Tomato Yesterday!

It was light brown on the outside,yet pink on the inside. It was sweet and juicy too! I NEVER found a tomato like that in the US. Must be a "Dominican Tomato"!...... "Ya Think?":cheeky:
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Rocky

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Calcium Carbide is sold here and used for ripening fruit (bananas).

m'frog
They refer to it as "carburo".
Bananas are about the only fruit that does not suffer in any way, being ripened this way.
Others lose a lot of their "goodness" and some just appear ripe, while still tasting like crap inside.
You frequently see nice looking Cotui Pineapples, all gold and pretty, and they're still sour inside.
They are invariably ripened with carburo.
 
Sep 19, 2005
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It was light brown on the outside,yet pink on the inside. It was sweet and juicy too! I NEVER found a tomato like that in the US. Must be a "Dominican Tomato"!...... "Ya Think?":cheeky:
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was it juicy right off the bat when you ate it...or did it get juicier as you went?

did you end up with weird fingernail like injuries to the top of your head after you finnished eating it?

if it came from La Riena...you may DIE SOON:dead:

bob
 

Rocky

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was it juicy right off the bat when you ate it...or did it get juicier as you went?

did you end up with weird fingernail like injuries to the top of your head after you finnished eating it?

if it came from La Riena...you may DIE SOON:dead:

bob
All this from a green tomatoe.