Often gardeners have to deal with a situation where tomatoes show all signs of ripeness, with the exception of the green area near the stem, which is popularly called «green shoulders.».
Today we propose to search for an answer to the question, what is the reason for the uneven ripening of tomatoes?
Incomplete ripening of tomatoes – what is it?
If a tomato is not fully ripe, the unripe portion of the pulp remains harder than the ripened part of the fruit.
This is especially noticeable on tomatoes, which during the ripening process change color to, for example, red or yellow.But this can also happen to those tomatoes that remain green for a long time.
In this case, the taste of the tomato will not be as sweet as that of a fully ripe one.
Please note: for some tomatoes it is quite normal if part of them remains green when fully ripe – but the manufacturer, as a rule, warns in advance about this feature.
Reasons for incomplete ripening of tomatoes
Chlorophyll in unripe tomatoes typically begins to break down at the end of flowering and continues around the petiole and up the fruit.
If chlorophyll is broken down too slowly or not at all, those «green hangers» appear.
There are several reasons, all related to weather conditions: this can occur due to thermal burn when tomatoes are exposed to too much direct sunlight, or as a result of too high a temperature over a long period of time.
