Harvest
How to ripen green tomatoes
The short answer
Pick green tomatoes before the first frost and ripen them indoors, somewhere warm, in a drawer or box with a ripe banana. Or lift a whole outdoor plant and lay it on straw under cloches so the fruit ripens on the vine. Green tomatoes that won't ripen make good chutney.
Every UK summer ends with green tomatoes. RHS and Garden Organic give a handful of ways to finish them, and they don't all agree on whether warm or cool is better. Here is what each says.
When to bring them in
At the end of the growing season, before the first frost: tomatoes need protection from frost. Garden Organic picks the green fruit before it; RHS lifts outdoor plants with unripe fruit at the end of the season.
Your usual first frost depends on where you garden: frost dates for your area.
| Window | J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tomato: sow indoorsFebruary to April | January: no | February: yes | March: yes | April: yes | May: no | June: no | July: no | August: no | September: no | October: no | November: no | December: no |
| Tomato: plant outMay to June | January: no | February: no | March: no | April: no | May: yes | June: yes | July: no | August: no | September: no | October: no | November: no | December: no |
| Tomato: harvestJuly to October | January: no | February: no | March: no | April: no | May: no | June: no | July: yes | August: yes | September: yes | October: yes | November: no | December: no |
Months from Vercro's crop catalogue, the data the Vercro app plans with. It allows about 9 to 13 weeks from planting out to the first harvest. Weather, variety and where you garden move every one of these.
379 UK gardeners had recorded tomato in Vercro by 19 September 2026. What Vercro gardens are growing.
Three ways to ripen them
- Ripen the whole plant. Lift outdoor plants with unripe fruit and lay them on straw under cloches.(RHS)
- Ripen picked fruit. Put the fruit somewhere warm and dark (RHS), or in a sunny spot indoors (Garden Organic).(RHS, Garden Organic)
- Add a banana. Put unripe tomatoes in a drawer with a banana, or in a closed bag or box with a ripe apple or banana, to hasten ripening.(RHS, Garden Organic)
Step by step, the simplest way
- Pick the green fruit before the first frost.(Garden Organic)
- Put them in a drawer or a closed box with a ripe banana somewhere warm and dark.(RHS, Garden Organic)
What helps
- A ripe banana or apple in a closed bag or box speeds things up.(Garden Organic)
- Leaving fruit on the plant works too: lay the lifted plant on straw under cloches and let the fruit ripen there.(RHS)
What doesn’t work
- Leaving them outside through a frost. Tomatoes need protection from frost; pick first.(RHS, Garden Organic)
If they never ripen
- Make chutney. Green tomatoes also make great chutney.(Garden Organic)
Where the sources differ
Two good sources, two answers. We show both rather than picking the convenient one.
| Question | RHS | Garden Organic |
|---|---|---|
| Warm or cool? | Pick the fruits and put them somewhere warm and dark to ripen. | Its growing guide says a sunny spot indoors, or a dark place next to a ripe banana. Its storage page hangs the whole vine in a cool, dry place, or wraps fruit in paper in trays. |
Keep a record of what each bed gave
Log what you pick, and how much, bed by bed. Vercro keeps the record, so next year you know what worked where, and Today shows what your crops need next.
Keep going
Where this comes from
Crop windows, growing times and plant families come from Vercro's own curated crop catalogue, the same data the Vercro app uses. Where a published source says something different, we show both rather than choosing the convenient one. Reviewed 19 September 2026.
- Tomatoes: grow your own, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
- Tomatoes, Garden Organic. Read 19 September 2026.
- Harvesting and storing vegetables, Garden Organic. Read 19 September 2026.