Will you take it on? Insurance for faster ripening of tomatoes

At the end of August and beginning of September, many gardens still have green tomatoes. This brings up the recurring question: can the ripening process be accelerated with home practices? An article from Romanian Agrointeligența mentions a bizarre yet common trick: pricking the berry near the stem with a sterile safety pin. We looked into what the literature says about this, and we have collected the risks and proven solutions. The essence of this hobby gardener practice is to make a small prick with a sterile needle near the stem base to "start" the tomato's biosynthesis and make it ripen faster. According to the article, the effect can be seen in 7-19 days. Plant physiology knows of such a phenomenon. Mechanical injury can trigger ethylene production, and since tomatoes are a climacteric fruit, ethylene is a key hormone in ripening. However, this does not mean that the method is safe and predictable in practice. Every cut, scratch, and prick is a potential entry point for ...