Indoor and outdoor toms ripening at the same time!

[Garden Manager]

Igrow my toms in an unheated greenhouse, which is shaded as well as outdoor in a warm sunny spot. Every year the fruitsin both locations start ripening at the same time, and sometimes the outdoor before the indoor (by a few days). I usually plant the plants at around the same time in pots of the same compost. This year hoping for an earlier crop I managed to plant the indoor plants a few weeks earlier. However despite this and a good summer the same thing hashappened, mmy first ripe fruit has come from the outdoor plants with the indoor ones starting to turn (just).

What could be going wrong? Earlier planting hasn't helped and iI can't plant out iin the GH much earlier without problems.

[Garden Manager]

[Tee Gee]

in an unheated greenhouse, which is shaded

It has to be something to do with the available light or lack of it as in this case.

Your outdoor plants have probably have had more light than your indoor plants hence the earlier ripening.

Next year we might not have such a sunny summer and you may find the situation reverses as your indoor plants may have the better growing conditions.

[Garden Manager]

Thanks for replying.

Yes light might be an issue. I have has shade paint on the greenhouse since May when i planted the tomatoes in there, with all the hot sunny weather i was worried about it getting to hot and plants scorching. At the time i had bedding plants and young veg seedlings that i wanted to protect. Perhaps i have kept the shading on too long?

That said the problem of slow ripening in the greenhouse is not just a problem of sunny & warm summers, they have often been as slow if not slower in dull wet summers when there has been no shading put on (apart from the occasional hot day when i have put up netting). Not sure if its light in that case.

[laurieuk]

If you are growing the same variety but in different places they will ripen bout the same time. You really need an earlier variety to grow inside.

[Garden Manager]

No I tend to grow varieties that do better under glass in the greenhouse and those that are good outdoor doers in the garden.

This year: Shirley, Tres Cantos (spanish variety)  + Super Marmande in the greenhouse, Gardeners Delight, Golden Sunrise and Harbinger outdoors. A couple of leftover indoor ones grown outside when i ran out of space!

Some varieties vary from year to year but always Shirley indoors and gardeners delight outside!

[willsy]

Garden manager, I see you are growing tres cantos tomatoes. It is the first time I have grown these. How are yours doing? mine are very large but not ripening. Have you grown these before? I know they are a Spanish variety.In Spain I have bought green tomatoes but they have been red inside. Do you know if these are going to be the same.
Thanks..

[Garden Manager]

Garden manager, I see you are growing tres cantos tomatoes. It is the first time I have grown these. How are yours doing? mine are very large but not ripening. Have you grown these before? I know they are a Spanish variety.In Spain I have bought green tomatoes but they have been red inside. Do you know if these are going to be the same.
Thanks..

No first time growing them. Have just started ripening now. Have yet to try one.

[Ian Pearson]

You can encourage an earlier (but much smaller) crop from the indoor plants by stressing them. Allowing them to repeatedly almost dry out, and/or growing in smaller pots with less feed will cause earlier fruiting/ripening. Obviously, overdoing things is a danger, and you need to be on hand every day to continually monitor the plants. Once other plants are cropping, you can discard the forced ones.
Deliberate shading is not going to help. Tomatoes are evolved to grow in semi-tropical temperatures and light levels, so scrubbing the glass and cutting back any shading vegetation is a better strategy. Even clean glass cuts out some of the light, so I think it's a good idea to move plants outside during the day if there is a warm period early in the season when light levels are still low. White paint in the greenhouse interior, or temporary foil reflective surfaces placed under or around the plants can also help.
Removing a high proportion of the plant's leaves once a truss has formed will also encourage quicker ripening.

But as others have said, choosing early varieties will probably have as much effect as all of these points put together. I find Eastern European varieties are usually quick maturing, being suited to short Summers.