How Long Does It Take a Tomato to Ripen on the Vine?

Growing tomatoes up an arch trellis is kinda my thing. I'd go so far as to say there are few accomplishments in the garden more exciting to me than when two tomato plants meet at the top of an arch. I love the beauty of the vines forming a mini jungle along the trellis, their limbs heavy with clusters of fruit. 

And here’s where the waiting begins. How long does it take for that fruit to ripen?

Okay, the first thing to understand about your tomatoes is that they are what I like to call a long-and-lengthy-kind-of-plant, which means they take a loooong time. Their fellow members of the long and lengthy club take 65 to 90 days. That’s because we’re growing tomatoes not for the leaves (definitely don’t want to eat those!), but for the fruit. And fruit is one of the last steps in the plant's life cycle. 

If you want to start growing tomatoes from a plant, I recommend going to your local nursery. The tag should tell you how many days it’ll take for the plant to finish fruiting. But just know that when you put tomatoes in the ground, you've got at least two months ahead of you.

Period.

Tomatoes are in the Solinacaea family, or the nightshade family, which means that, unlike with sugar snap peas or Swiss chard, you can’t, or at least you shouldn't, eat any other part of the plant besides the fruit.

There are two types of tomato plants: determinate and indeterminate. Determinate plants fruit and finish all at once. Indeterminate, or vining, plants, which is what I grow up my arch trellises, fruit and finish a little bit at a time, so what that means is I’ll start to get fruit really early on the plant, and then maybe two months after that, I'll get fruit up at the top of my arch. Watch my video on how to grow tomatoes up an arch trellis for more details on the two different types. I prefer indeterminate plants because I love a kitchen garden that always has something new and exciting and different going on. 

All right, so let's talk about how long it’s actually going to take for these little girls to ripen now that they've formed on the vine. The general rule is that tomatoes take as long to ripen as they did to form in the first place.

I’m always encouraging gardeners to take lots of pictures in their gardens, so you could get scientific and take a picture a day of your plants as soon as a flower starts to form. However many days it takes for the flower to turn into a fruit, that is how many days it's going to take for this fruit to completely ripen. Kind of a long time, right? It might feel that way. 

I’ve found most flowers turn into full-size fruit in 15 to 20 days, which means those little tomatoes are going to take another 15 to 20 days before they ripen. And that's given the optimal conditions for ripening. 

If you’re feeling impatient, just remind yourself that vine-ripened tomatoes are one of the best things in the garden—definitely something worth waiting for!

here are four things you can do to speed up ripening: 

One: prune

Pruning regularly tells your plant to put its energy into ripening the tomatoes rather than in growing more leaves. I have a video on how to prune your tomatoes here. 

Two: add phosphorus-rich fertilizer to your plants

Use organic and fertilize sparingly, maybe once a week at most. The phosphorus will help with the fruiting process. 

Three: cap the vine at the top

This is for when you’re nearing the end of the season and need your tomatoes to just hurry up already. Cut the very top off the vine to tell the plant to stop putting any more energy into growing bigger and to put all of its energy into finishing the fruiting process. 

Four: cut and bring indoors

This works best for fruit that’s already starting to blush, or turn yellow (the first ripening color). Cut the cluster and bring indoors to rest on a windowsill or inside a brown bag. This is your best option if you're desperate because frost is coming or if squirrels are stealing all of your harvest, but I prefer the flavor when fruits are kept on the vine as long as possible.

I hope this helps you up your tomato-gardening game. If you’ve got green and yellow fruit hanging out on your trellis, just enjoy the building anticipation of popping a perfectly ripe, vine-ripened tomato into your mouth. It’ll happen… at some point!