Tomato Ripening Experiment- Part 1

My happy little family spent some time in the garden this weekend. While my Beloved Geek and Mr. Smarty Pants added a new bed for strawberries, I pruned my tomatoes back quite a bit. Mr. Autism and I picked these little beauties:

 

In case it's hard to see, that's a little over 3 lbs of cherry and grape tomatoes! They aren't ripe yet, but that's okay. I have a plan. Mr. Smarty Pants read in one of his science experiment books (a gift from his Nana and Grandpa) that overripe lemons help ripen fruit, since they give off ethylene gas. This makes sense to me. Ethylene gas is given off by most fruits in nature, based on my research, but an overripe lemon is supposedly pretty rich in ethylene gas. (And by research, I mean casual checking of wikipedia.org and google.)

 

It's time for an experiment.

Central question:

 

Do tomatoes ripen more quickly when placed with an overripe (molding) lemon, with already ripe tomatoes or by themselves as an unripened group?

 

Independent variable: Ripening agent

 

Overripe Lemon Slice

Ripened tomatoes.

Unripe tomatoes (control group).

 Dependent variables:

Size of group:

Control Group - 1 lb.

Lemon Group - 1 lb.

Ripe Tomato Group - 1 lb.

 

Storage Container:

 

 

 Storage Location:

On a shelf in my kitchen.

Hypothesis:

 The tomatoes with the slice of overripe lemon will ripen first.

Methodology:

The bags will be checked daily for ripening. Ripening will be measured by weight of ripening fruit. Data will be recorded and posted.

Science is fun!