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Message: [QUOTE="Chuck, post: 172669, member: 944"] Water has nothing to do with ripening. Temperature does. What makes a tomato turn red are pigments produced by the tomato called lycopene and carotene. Watering a mature tomato even a little too much can cause cracking and a mature tomato is one in the late white stage or blushing stage. If it gets too hot tomatoes will slow their ripening process. This temperature is about 95+F. They will still ripen on the vine but the best ripening temperature is between about 75F-85F. Tomatoes (except cherry types) only set fruit at certain temperatures and occurs at night. The best low nighttime temperatures for tomato set is about 65F- 74F although they will still set fruit at a slightly lower or higher temperature. If your nightime low temperature reaches 78F the blooms will abort. Some tomato varieties will set fruit at about a nighttime low of 60F but these are cool climate tomatoes. [/QUOTE]