mutant overgrown tomato plant. Can I give it my coffee grounds?

[Faye Brown]

Seriously. About four feet tall. Three feet wide. Early girl bush II. It sprouted from it's own volition out of my compost pile. After I counted 40 odd good size tomatoes on it, it started collapsing in on itself. It's currently being held up by a lattice, some twine, and the grace of God. None of the tomatoes have a hint of red so I'm reluctant to pick them, would coffee grinds speed up ripening or slow it down?

 

[marlingardener]

You must have some really great compost! One really can't speed up or slow down ripening. Tomatoes ripen from the inside out, and at their own pace. Just try to keep it as upright as possible, and be thankful that it isn't a pumpkin vine.

 

[Faye Brown]

Lol in the bed next to it is a grape vine and I think they're in competition with each other. Thanks for the tip, hopefully we'll get nice tomato ripening temperatures this week!

 

[Beth_B]

I think coffee grounds and eggshells take at least a year to break down in soil enough to be useful (I'm open to rebuttals here) but I don't think it can hurt.

What @marlingardener said, though. Seems like you already have some very fertile growing medium; just stake that baby any way you can and the 'maters will ripen in their own time.

 

[grouie]

Whatever grows from a compost pile has to be the best. You may have to wait for a while for the great guys to ripen.

 

[superbobby]

Can you post pictures of it? Your post really made me curious.

 

[Faye Brown]

Haha certainly. For point of reference the lattice wood on top of my fence is over my head, and I'm 5'8"..... Since she's an "early girl" I named her "Bertha." Pulled off some smaller tomatoes, so now have about 33 medium-large tomatoes hidden on the vine. Pulled the lattice off the 2 year old grape plant to hold up half the tomato since the cage barely supports it. Can't wait to test the soil from this plot and make all my beds Into this kind of plant crack. Noticed today Some of the new blossoms are starting to die before they flower. Is that normal
Or should I treat for blossom rot?

 

[GenesistoRevelation]

I'm by no means an expert, I'm basically 100% green, but am getting in to gardening, but I read in a book a couple of days ago that green bananas give off the same chemical that a ripening tomato gives off; the chemical causes tomatoes to ripen. So if you place a green banana right next to a bunch of your tomatoes, it may make them ripen.

I haven't tried this myself, and it may not be true, but the writer of the book I found it in seemed knowledgeable.

edit: the book that has this information is Indoor Salad by Ginger Booth. Page 135. It says that ripening tomatoes produce ethylene gas, which causes neighboring tomatoes to ripen as well. Green bananas (individual bananas, unripe) produce this same gas, so setting one by a bunch of green tomatoes on stem could make them ripen.

 

[Faye Brown]

That's a neat trick! I'll remember that! Sadly my zone 7b/8a is too cold for bananas, just by a little bit!