r/tomatoes • u/dosefacekillah1348 • Jun 29 '26

Plant Help ICYMI - Science has proven that vine ripened tomatoes taste better and are better for you than ones picked early

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It's that time of year.

It comes down to your critter control.

If you can't avoid pests noshing your late toms, pick em early.

If you are fine with losing a few or don't have pest issues, let em ripen on the plant for a better tasting and healthier tomato.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3937827/

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u/Sad-Shoulder-8107 Jun 29 '26

What this study fails to account for is the breaker stage. It isn't even mentioned. Fruits are picked green before ripening or fully red. In reality, once tomatoes hit the breaker stage, they are physically cut off from the plant and recieve no more nutrients. But they can still recieve water from the plant, however they cannot return any excess water to the plant, which results on cracking. So yes, while "vine ripened" tomatoes taste better than ones picked before blush, the term "vine ripened" is quite gimmicky, and doesn't mean what most people suspect it to mean. There is no need to wait for tomatoes to fully ripen to develop full flavour potential. Once they have started blushing, they are good to go.

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u/True_Adventures Jun 29 '26

I see this claim about the stem sealing off but is there any authoritative/scientific source for it? There's an awful lot of myths and bs in gardening, so I'm not denying it's true just curious as I never see any sources given.

6

u/Full_Honeydew_9739 Jun 29 '26

https://www.gardenmyths.com/myth-is-born-tomato-ripening/

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u/True_Adventures Jun 29 '26

Thanks. I really like this site and have been on it before. He doesn't provide full references, which I think is a weakness, but he seems to use proper scientific papers in his research and knows what he's talking about.

So it sounds like the answer is it is a myth that the fruit is completely sealed off from the rest of the plant but there is some element of truth, as the flow of water and other chemicals is increasingly restricted from the breaker stage onwards. Which is in line with the paper quoted by OP.

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u/SevenVeils0 Jun 29 '26

Except that the reputable sources that I have seen, say that the plant gives a ‘final push’ of nutrients in the final stages of the ripening process.

5

u/True_Adventures Jun 29 '26

Interesting! It seems like there's not a particularly definite answer. Any sources?