Is it ripe?

NickieL · #1 07/28/12, 02:18 PM

i have no expirience with this tomato, OSU blue....

so is it ripe?

It just turned orange in the last couple days but it's always had the purple tops.

Is it ripe? - Gardening & Plant Propagation

Is it ripe? - Gardening & Plant Propagation

Paquebot · #2 07/28/12, 06:05 PM

That's how they look when ripe. They are purple over green and then the green turns to a reddish orange and some of the purple fades. Those deeper into the plants and shaded more will retain more purple. Those in full sunlight may be almost yellow.

They will also hold for quite awhile after ripening so you don't have to worry about going out tomorrow and just find skin hanging. You'll enjoy them best as a salad tomato but most of my 2010 crop ended up in a delightful huge batch of spaghetti sauce.

Martin

frankva · #3 07/29/12, 07:16 AM

Mine went red with purple shoulders. If I left them sit after picking, they went totally red. Took the gentle squeeze test to find the optimum ripeness for me.

If you open the foliage to allow sunlight onto the fruit (start when small,) you get more purple. I ran a lateral sideways and pruned foliage.

Izitmidnight · #4 07/29/12, 09:28 AM

Hope you enjoy them more than I did. They didn;t have any flavor for me.

Paquebot · #5 07/29/12, 11:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Izitmidnight

Hope you enjoy them more than I did. They didn;t have any flavor for me.

Many "normal" tomatoes of that type share a similar quality. That's why they are best used for salads or processing. If one wants slices to eat plain tomatoes, there's the beefsteaks and oxhearts for that. Canners are in between and cherry tomatoes at the bottom. Which reminds me, I'm growing Bing Cherry which starts out purple but ripens to red with dusky shoulders. Tastes good.

Martin

Paquebot · #6 08/05/12, 01:56 AM

If OSU Blue isn't to your liking, the initial release was into the hands of breeders to use them to cross with other varieties. Picked some Blue Streak today and they start out like OSU Blue but are bigger. Much of the purple shoulders fade to a dark smudge. Size and taste would have them about right for canning whole. They are sort of a mini-beefsteak rather than strictly salad. This one is from Tom Wagner, the creator of Green Zebra and many others.

Martin