[Tomato Dirt #236] Take These Steps Now to Extend Your Tomato Harvest

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[Tomato Dirt #236] Take These Steps Now to Extend Your Tomato Harvest
August 12, 2021

Tomato Dirt Newsletter
Volume 11, Number 17

Dear Tomato Dirt reader,

Welcome back to Tomato Dirt! A couple times a month, we’ll send you this newsletter packed with tips about growing tomatoes and using them.

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FEATURE: Take These Steps Now to Extend Your Tomato Harvest

Extend harvest of your tomatoes and enjoy them for weeks longer when you take these simple steps in late summer and early fall.

Reduce watering. If fruit has reached full or nearly full size, cut back on watering to encourage ripening.
Pick excess fruit. Ripening fruit takes a good deal of energy from leaves. A large crop can slow the process, especially if temperatures are cooling off in the fall. When you have a heavy crop still on the vine with just a few weeks before the first expected frost, pick a few of the just-ripening tomatoes (mature green, turning, or pink) to allow the rest to ripen on the vine.
Shift roots. Pull slightly at the bottom of the plant to shift the roots. The surprise sends the tomato the signal that it’s time to finish up with the fruit on the vine and go to seed.

Get more details for extending your tomato harvest … and be sure to check out our Harvesting Tomatoes Pinterest board for more helpful information.

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