As a beginner tomato grower one of the most exciting milestones is witnessing those very first yellow flowers. It’s a sign your plants are thriving and fruits are soon to follow. But just how long should you expect to wait between seeing those pretty blooms and harvesting ripe tomatoes? Let’s walk through the growth timeline.
Overview of the Tomato Growth Stages
Tomatoes go through four key growth stages on their journey from seed to fruit:
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Vegetative Growth: The first few weeks after transplanting or sowing seed, the plant focuses on establishing roots and foliage. This lasts around 20-25 days.
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Flowering: Yellow tomato flowers start to emerge after 3-4 weeks of growth. Flowering continues for 20+ days.
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Pollination: Flowers must be pollinated to develop into fruits. This occurs throughout the flowering stage.
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Fruit Formation: Pollinated flowers form small green fruits which grow over 20-30 days.
So when including the time spent flowering and forming fruits, you’re looking at 40-60+ days from first flower to ripe tomato! Patience is required
Timeline From Flower to Fruit in More Detail
Let’s break down what’s happening in those 40-60+ days:
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Days 1-10: Flowers emerge and bloom. For pollination and fruit formation to occur, you need fully open, yellow flowers with visible reproductive parts.
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Days 10-15 Pollination happens! Pollen is transferred between flowers by wind or insects Successfully pollinated flowers will start to develop a small green ovary at the base
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Days 15-20: The ovary grows bigger and starts to form a small, hard green tomato fruit. You’ll notice the flower dropping off.
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Days 20-30: Fruits rapidly expand to full size. They remain green and hard at this stage. Growth slows once full sized.
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Days 30-45: The tomatoes begin ripening! You’ll see them turn from green to yellow, pink, red, or purple.
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Days 40-60+: Tomatoes are fully ripe and ready for picking! Maximum flavor and texture is achieved on the vine.
Tips for Quicker Fruit Set
While there’s no way to speed up the ripening process, here are some tips to help flowers develop into fruits more quickly:
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Attract pollinators like bees to your garden with nectar-rich plants. They will transfer pollen between flowers.
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Use a small brush to manually hand-pollinate by touching flower centers.
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Tap blossom clusters gently daily to release pollen.
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Use a fan or fan spray to circulate air within vines for better pollen distribution.
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Avoid high nitrogen fertilizer during flowering/fruiting as it promotes more leaves over fruits.
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Cut suckers and prune leaves to direct energy to existing fruits.
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Ensure consistent moisture. Fluctuating soil moisture can cause flower/fruit drop.
With optimum care, you may shave a week off the wait for visible baby tomatoes. But patience is still key when growing tomatoes!
When to Give Up on Late Bloomers
It’s normal for tomato plants to take 40 days or longer to go from flower to ripe fruit. But if you’re coming up on 60+ days with no results, issues like poor pollination or temperature extremes may be preventing fruit set.
Signs it may be time to remove unproductive flowers/plants:
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Flowers failed to form fruits after 8+ weeks.
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Plant stops flowering and appears stressed/diseased.
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Temperatures are forecast to drop below 50°F at night.
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Fall frost is expected in less than 2 months.
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Majority of other fruits have already ripened.
As the season winds down, the plant won’t have energy to ripen late fruits. It’s best to pull these unsuccessfully pollinated blooms so the plant stops trying to develop them.
If flowering/fruit set fails repeatedly, it’s time to amend soil, review variety selection, and make changes for better results next year!
The Takeaway
While eager tomato growers wish for instant gratification, patience is a must when it comes to waiting for flowers to produce ripe tomatoes.
You can expect around 2 weeks minimum between seeing those first pretty blooms and baby fruits becoming visible. Then at least another month until ripe tomatoes are ready for eating!
The good news is that attentive care makes the wait more bearable. Plus, when that garden-fresh tomato flavor finally arrives, every day of patience pays off.
Hopefully these tips on the timeline from blossom to tomato will help set realistic expectations. Now go enjoy the journey from flower to fruit! Just remember, good things come to those who wait.
The Two Types of Tomatoes
Tomatoes are nightshades, which means they are in the Solinacaea family. Unlike sugar snap peas or swiss chard, you shouldn’t or can’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. Youll have one large harvest after youve patiently waited on the fruit.
Indeterminate, or vining, plants, which is what I grow up my arch trellises, fruit and finish a little bit at a time. What that means is I’ll start to get fruit really early on the plant, and then maybe two months after that, Ill 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.
Because I love a kitchen garden that always has something new, exciting, and different going on, I like indeterminate plants. Plus, you can enjoy some of the fruits while youre waiting on others to ripen.
Once a tomato fruit forms, it will go through several stages in the ripening process. You can technically pick the fruit at any of these stages, and each has pros and cons.
When tomato fruits are green, their seeds are fully developed inside, but their delicious flavor is still developing. There are commercial growers who pick fruits while they are still green so that they can ripen on the long way to the store. This is why the food you grow at home tastes so much better.
It’s best not to pick tomatoes while they’re still green unless you need them to go a long way. The exception would be if youre expecting frost. If that’s the case, pick all the fruits off the plant and bring them inside to ripen.
Tomatoes blush when they begin to show yellow or light pink along their flesh. The fruits are now producing ethylene gas, which is what encourages them to ripen and develop flavor.
If you pick your tomatoes now, they will only need a week or two to get ripe inside before you can eat them.
If squirrels or other animals are stealing your fruits, now might be a good time to pick them. You can also tell the plant to make new fruits instead of ripening old ones, which is another benefit of picking them now.
Ninety percent of the tomato flesh is now the mature color, which can be red, yellow, or dark purple. For me, this is the best time to eat the fruits because they are just the right amount of soft and firm. The fruits are ready to eat right off the vine; there’s no need to bring them inside to let them ripen more.
Keep growing your self as a gardener
Tomatoes Are One of My Favorite Plants to Grow in the Kitchen Garden
If two tomato plants meet at the top of an arch, that’s about the most exciting thing that can happen in the garden for me. I love how the vines along the trellis look like a little jungle, with their heavy limbs full of green fruit.
And here’s where the waiting begins. How long does it take for that fruit to ripen?
Growing TOMATOES From Seed – 160 Days Time Lapse
FAQ
How soon after flowers do you get tomatoes?
How long does it take for tomatoes to ripen from flowers?
Why are my tomatoes flowering but not fruiting?
What are the 5 stages of a tomato plant?
How long does it take a tomato plant to ripen?
Depending on the variety, tomato plants can bear fruit two to three weeks after the flowers are fully open. Several early varieties are bred to bear ripe fruit as early as 50 days from setting out. The average time for most types ranges between 60 and 100 days from when they are sown. There are seven stages of growth for tomato plants.
How long between flowering and fruiting a tomato?
ANSWER: The window of time between flowering and fruiting is approximately 20 to 60 days. Why such a large gap in the range? It has much to do with the type of tomato you’ve planted. Smaller varieties produce fruit faster than larger varieties. Fruit takes approximately five weeks to be ready to harvest once it appears on your plant.
How long does it take a tomato plant to flower?
Flowering and Fruit Set Tomato plants typically begin to flower about 6 to 8 weeks after transplanting, depending on the variety and growing conditions. Flowers must be pollinated to produce fruit. While tomatoes are self-pollinating, encouraging pollinator activity or gently shaking the flowering branches can improve the fruit set.
How long does it take a tomato to grow?
Tomato seedlings take about seven to ten days to germinate. Tomatoes are a popular fruit, and people use them in various dishes. Depending on the size entirely, it takes about 25 to 60 days for your tomatoes to develop after flowering. Smaller tomatoes take 25 to 30 days, while large tomatoes take 45 to 60 days.