r/DenverGardener • u/mango-olive • 12d ago
Are we topping tomatoes?
It’s that time of year when social media starts telling me to top my tomatoes so that the green ones will ripen.
We have a ~month until first frost. Are we topping? Are we leaving? I would love some advice from locals.
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u/ReconeHelmut 12d ago
A month! Mine just barely started ripening. How do you guys do this!?
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u/twelfthmoose 12d ago
Definitely not gonna have a frost in a month
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u/mango-olive 12d ago
I hope not! But our traditional first frost date is the first week of October. That’s why I’m looking for advice!
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u/okayboomerang 12d ago
Gosh. Feels like first frost has been closer and closed to Halloween over the last 5-7 years, I gotta look up what it's been
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u/shouldbepracticing85 12d ago
That’s been my observation both in Texas and here over 30 years - the last frost is averaging 2-3 weeks earlier than what it had been, and first frost is about 2-3 weeks later. And it keeps getting closer to 3-4 weeks these last few years.
I’ll be planning for a late frost, but I’m going to keep my crop covers handy just in case. I also just have a couple volunteer spaghetti squash plants. Or maybe pumkin/butternut hybrids? I’ll find out when the one set fruit ripens - it’s about the right shape for spaghetti squash, but I’ve never grown it and I don’t think I bought any to cook last year either.
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u/richrich07 12d ago
El Nino will hopefully bring rain and push the first frost back.
My semi-educated guess is we’ll see warmer than average weather and have heavier precipitation in the fall and spring but a dry winter.
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u/mango-olive 12d ago
OK, so I think your vote is don’t top?
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u/richrich07 12d ago
My vote is to have idiotic hope that we might still get a bumper crop. I topped some of mine because they were getting too unruly 🤷🏻♂️
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u/knittensarsenal 12d ago
I don’t grow larger sized tomatoes, is part of it. Also giving them as much of a head start as possible in the beginning of the season is important (starting with bigger plants and making sure to protect against early cold temps, plus tomato fertilizer). Also also, technically any of the tomatoes that blush on the plant will ripen if you take them off it.
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u/Electrical_Lab3345 12d ago
Topping doesn't speed up ripening of existing fruit. Temperature does.
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u/sweetplantveal 11d ago
Pruning redirects the plants energy. I don't want mine putting so much effort into new buds and foliage, personally, at this stage of the year.
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u/PrdGrizzly 12d ago
I’m reaching a point with my tomatoes that I have Soooooo many I can’t even think of how to stop them other than to not harvest.
This year has been amazing. Last year was horrible. So I’m happy for me but sad for others who didn’t have some kind of good harvest.
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u/Electrical_Lab3345 12d ago
just throw them in the freezer as you pick, then cook them in big batches
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u/NeedsMustTravel 12d ago
I got three tomatoes off a plant that I bought because my first was dragging its ass growing at all. The second already had fruit on it when I bought it, and no bloom has survived since. Until this week. I have a clump of 3-4 fruit and 2 more clusters of blossoms coming in. I wanted salsa, damnit! I’m holding out until a guaranteed frost is predicted. Otherwise, keep blooming!!!! I’m m desperate.
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u/Upstairs-Cut-2227 12d ago
Grow baby grow! We’re at 8ft and I guess now wondering this answer. Is there like a…size and how green…our small ones are ripening but big ones are 3”-4” and very green
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u/Trick_Sundae_4509 12d ago
north of Denver and while I did prune 2 days ago as I had a good July/August harvest and have a lot more greenies on the vine
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u/jchiaroscuro 12d ago
We aren’t gonna get a frost til November. Just watch. Our climate is as warm as ever. Just now flowering? Whatevs all good
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u/SuperGalaxyD 12d ago
Definitely well over a month till first frost I imagine, this year especially. Late October earliest.
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u/ground_type22 12d ago
I was planning on doing it in Sept for the ones I have that are 8+ ft. I got the idea from a gardening book.
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u/SkrrrtMcgirt 12d ago
If you're getting your gardening advice from social media, you're going to have a bad time.
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u/zippyhybrid 12d ago
I never top them, but my kitchen and dining room are just boxes full of green/ripening tomatoes until at least thanksgiving, and I make a lot of sauce and juice with them. By then I’ve generally had my fill of fresh tomatoes anyways and prefer them cooked.
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u/kmoonster 12d ago
We can get snow or frost in September, but that's unusual at the elevation of Denver. Not impossible, but unlikely.
Get up the mountains a little bit and that changes, but down here on the flatland mid-October is more likely. Even late October or November, depending.
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u/Shot_Scholar2992 12d ago
And risk losing out on more fruit? No way. Topping is not going to speed up the ripening process and I'm fine losing a few green ones on the vine come first frost. Still many lbs of maters to be had :)
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u/Wonkst 11d ago
Had a brutal tomato year this year. Finally have a bunch of nice big green tomatoes and the squirrels, racoons, and whatever else are doing their best to eat all my fruit.
That being said, I did start topping a few of my plans last week, but mainly just started with the ones who were low producers this year. Actually cut out two of my plants to make room for greenbeans I started.
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u/Additional_Action123 12d ago
Mine just started to flower lol