The many color's of the Tomato

It all starts with the pretty little yellow flower....

It is important to know that not all of these blossoms will become a tomato. Those are called false blossoms. I belive it all depends on what else is going on in the plants life. When my two developed their frist tomato's (3 each) there were several other blossoms but none turned to tomato's untill it seemed that the ones growing reached their full size.




As the flower nears the end of it's bloom a small green ball seems to form. As time goes on the flower is reduced to just a brown dried up flower that hangs out on the bottom of the growing tomato. Some times it will fall off. Once the tomato has begun to grow the flower is actually no longer needed.




Every day we watched to see how big these guys were going to get. At one point it seemed that they just stopped growing. Of course at this point we thought for sure that the change from green to red would happen. We were very wrong. It was actually almost 2 weeks later that finally there seemed to be a small change in color. But in gardening terms 2 weeks was like 2 months...

Finally the very very gradual change from green to red started. We had to do a double take because at first I wasn't sure if it was a change or not. They suddenly looked a little yellow...still green but a hint of yellow.

A day or so later most started to make the change. Some changed faster than others but that was neat to see as you could really see the different colors they can be. I had read that once they start the change it is usually a day or so later that they are ripe. That I found out to not be true. At least in this case. It was actually 6 days before they seemed ready.


Something else I learned was that the bigger the plant the longer it will take to ripen. Bobbet...the big girl that she is started changeing first but Bob's were actually done first.

Here in the basket you can see the full 1st harvest. The bunch of 3 on the left is from tiny Bob and the bunvch of 3 on the right is Bobbet. Bob's seem to be smaller but are more uniform in the red coloring. Bobbets seem larger but not a ripe looking. Both sets of tomato's formed at the same time. But one grew larger much like the plant it's self.

Is this due to Bobbet being in the Greenhouse? I am sure that that is why she got bigger faster. But is that why her tomato's were bigger? Or was it the plants size that made them bigger. Since they are both housed with in the Greenhouse now and both have blooms again I am hoping to find out. Bobbet is indeed much larger than Bob but both get the same amount of sun now and have plenty of space to stretch. Only time will tell.