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Dear Growers!

I know at least for most of us it'll take quite some time until the first fruit set of our tomatoes, but nevertheless I'd like to ask you a question that crossed my mind recently:

Does it make any sense to protect a giant tomato fruit from direct solar radiation as is common in pumpkin growing? If so, what's the best way of protection?

Thanks,
rarepumpkin

2/8/2011 3:35:10 PM

Hamilton Nj

rarepumpkin, i cover my fruit once they get to about 1-1/2 to 2 pounds to keep them from ripening too early,also buy doing that u might gain a little weight by stretching the number of days till it ripens !!! but as far as i know the tomatos love the sun should not have affects like it does on pumkins and watermelons !!! pizza

2/8/2011 7:18:22 PM

Hamilton Nj

i just use a towel or cloth !!! pizza

2/8/2011 7:19:57 PM

Bethlehem CT

This is an interesting topic, it never even occured to me, to cover the fruit. I would bet it would help quite a bit.
A couple observations;
I have noticed that when I grow (regular tomatoes) that they don't ripen very fast until the vines bend over and some sun can get in.
Also if you are pinching the suckers off of the plant you are removing a good deal of leaf coverage which would also help to shade the fruit. A young fruit in direct sun may get sunscald.

2/9/2011 8:07:15 AM

Wv

Check my diary last yr,i posted pics of the sling i used and covers. treetop

2/9/2011 11:24:43 AM

Thanks a lot to all of you. I think this season I will try to shade my giant tomato fruit - at least for a while - to delay the ripening of the fruit!
I will take particular care that the fruit nevertheless is well aired and that underneath the cover there isn't too much heat generated.

2/10/2011 2:43:13 PM

Hamilton Nj

another thing i do is when we get a good rain storm i wipe the tomao dry so no ber, bottom end rot !!!! most tomatos ripen between 45 and 80 days according to type of tomato i had my big zac ripen in 45 days 3 tomatos in one but only one got red lol pizza

2/10/2011 3:44:15 PM