When do you pick your tomatoes?

[PIE!]

When they're green?

When they start to turn red?

When they're completely ripe?

 

Last year I waited for them to be completely ripe. The ones I got were delicious, but I lost a lot to the squirrels. I'm trying to decide what to do this year.

[stripe]

Eh, a squirrel knocked off a totally green one this morning! I wait until at least mostly red.

[Dory]

I wait until they are mostly red. I find the longer you leave them the more flavor they have.

[chepyl]

We pick as they are ripe. DD eats them all as they ripen!! At least for now, we are getting mostly cherry and grape tomatoes. We have a bunch of large tomatoes.getting close....we will pick when ripe or nearly ripe and have some.to share.

[Hoot]

I try to leave them on until they're completely ripe unless we're dueling with a resident groundhog (as we are this year). Then we end up picking when they start to ripen. This really only goes for our Pink Brandywine tomatoes though since those are all that Mr. Groundhog likes. He has very discerning tastes. :lol:

[The Girls' Mom]

This year I'm picking as soon as they begin to turn...but we are battling critters and some sort of rot/fungus.

[PIE!]

Thanks for all the input! I think I'll pick when they start to turn red this year and see how it goes.

[Guest]

We are picking them as they turn red - this is our first year having tomatoes, and it is so fun! We don't have a tomato bush, we have a tomato tree. They are thriving!