Tomatoes are the ideal home garden crop.  They are relatively easy to grow.  They do well in a wide range of climates.  And the texture and flavor of homegrown simply put to shame the styrofoam varieties you’ll find at the chainstore.  For these and other reasons, nine out of ten home gardeners grow tomatoes; since you’re reading this, let’s assume you are among those nine.

So far so good.  But what if the days of the growing season are swiftly passing, and the green fruit hanging on your vines is becoming a cause for consternation?  Why won’t it ripen?  For months you’ve had visions of never-ending bruschetta, salsa, and marinara, but now you are trying to convince yourself that “fried green tomatoes” sounds better than it sounds.  What to do?

Your ultimate goal, of course, is to harvest as many ripe tomatoes as possible.  There are two aspects of that — “many” and “ripe” — and you must remember both of them.   A thousand hard, green marbles that end up in the compost pile will not constitute a satisfying conclusion to your labor.  Early in the season, you’ll do well to fertilize from time to time and water regularly; you’ll also want to shake flowers to stimulate pollination since each tomato flower contains both male and female reproductive parts, but they need a little help (from insects or wind or you) to get together; you may also want to prune (indeterminates) prudently for growth.  When you still have plenty of growing season left, such practices are good for maximizing the number of tomatoes.  As the growing season begins to draw to a close, however, you’ll want to shift your focus: your goal now is to do all you can to ensure the protection and ripening of your existing fruit.  This is achievable, so do not fret, and do not accept any fried green consolation prizes.  Here are seven suggestions to help:

1. Discourage Growth.

Remember that you generally need about twenty or thirty days from flower to ripened fruit; when you no longer have that much time on the calendar, you need to become a bit ruthless.  You no longer want flowers to fruit — best to pluck them off callously instead of shaking them gently.  You no longer want to encourage vine growth; you want all energy going into the existing fruit. Stop fertilizing and consider significantly reducing watering.  If your vines have outgrown their stakes, you might want to cut off the tops — unripenable tomatoes appearing at the top will just draw energy away from more mature fruit below, and, depending on the security of your stake or cage, may risk toppling the whole project.

2. Refresh Your Mulch.

One of the biggest risks to successful maturation and ripening is disease.  Splatter from naked soil can get onto your plants, bringing fungal spores along with it that cause blight.  This is one of the reasons why mulching early on is a good idea.  But if you didn’t mulch, or if your mulch has decomposed or blown away over the past months, then you may need a refill.  Mulch will also help to keep the soil warm as the weather cools, so take a few minutes to reinvest now that you’re in the home stretch.

3. Prune Strategically.

For the same blight-prevention reasons mentioned above, it’s a good idea to keep the stem clean and clear for several inches above the ground; leaves should not be touching the ground.   Also, prune or tie up any higher-level growth that is sagging groundward.  This has the added benefit of making it easier — if you still choose to water — to water the ground instead of the plants, which is another aid in preventing blight.  Also, cut off any yellow, spotted, or moldy leaves: you want energy spent on ripening instead of fighting disease.  And while you have the pruner in hand, look for ways to increase airflow, which can help encourage ripening.  You may also need to be a bit mercenary and cut short the life of some of the smallest fruits that are unlikely to mature, to give focus to their larger, more-likely-to-ripen siblings.

4. Rock the Roots.

Sometimes we all need to be shaken up a little bit to get motivated.  Tomato plants are no different.  Be careful with this one, but if you’re feeling bold, consider pulling at the bottoms of your plants to shift the roots’ position in the soil a bit.  The shock can have the effect of waking the plant up, so to speak, and startling it — resulting in an acceleration in ripening.  Oh! something’s happening . . . time to get busy.

5. Harvest at First Blush.

You can pick fruits that show early signs of color; these have begun the ripening process, which can be completed indoors (more on that below).  The intent is to strategically allow the remaining, greener fruit to receive more of the plant’s energy during the final days of the plant’s life.  Be strategic, though, and do not jump to this plan too early.  Your indoor-ripened fruit may not be quite as sweet and flavorful as that left on the vine.

6. Bag it With a Banana.

If you do complete the ripening process indoors for individual fruit, do it the proper way.  The classic method, of course, is to place the tomatoes on the windowsill in sunlight.  If your intent is to then paint a watercolor of them, this is an ideal approach.  If, however, ripening is the only thing on your agenda, then try this instead: place the tomatoes in a breathable paper bag.  Be sure to spread them out; tomatoes like a bit of personal space while ripening.  And, for best results, add a banana.  Bananas release a tremendous amount of ethylene gas, which causes ripening.  Trapped with the tomatoes in a paper bag, the banana’s ethylene will work magic.  Ethylene gas, in fact, is likely what your grocery store uses to transform green tomatoes arriving on semi-trucks into the aforementioned pink styrofoam; you’re starting with better stuff, so your final product should be better too.  In the event that (Yes) we have no bananas, an apple will do.

7. Hang It Up.

When all else has been tried, and frost is about to bite, you can yank the entire plant out, fruit, roots and all, and bring it indoors.  Hang it upside down, ideally in a warm area.  You can use twine to suspend it from a rafter in a basement or heated garage (or,  in rare circumstances, the ceiling fan in your bedroom).  Have some patience, and many of the remaining green fruit on the plant will likely turn the corner.