• Question: Would a tomato stay ripe in a balloon full of air?

    Asked by to Aimee, Chris, Dave, Greig, Laurence on 16 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Greig Cowan

      Greig Cowan answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      No, I don’t think so. Although balloons retain air, they are still a bit porus (we know this since if you leave a balloon for a few days it would deflate). Therefore, new air would still get into the balloon and so could cause the tomato to start to oxidise and decay.

    • Photo: Aimee Hopper

      Aimee Hopper answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      If it started off ripe, if the air had been purified so there were no bugs/bacteria inside, and if we assume the balloon is completely impenetrable, then sure, don’t see why not…?

    • Photo: Laurence Perreault Levasseur

      Laurence Perreault Levasseur answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      I put plastic bags around my big tomatoes so that when they ripen and become delicious, animals don’t come and eat them. That usually works pretty well until the tomatoes are rip and ready to eat. I’d be about the same with a balloon I guess (tomatoes don’t need to see the sun to become ripe).

      If you detach the tomato from the plant, and you put it in a balloon, I guess if the air inside the balloon is about the same as the air outside (in terms of temperature and humidity) it’d take about as long for the tomato to go bad as if it were outside, in the same air conditions. The tomato can ripen just as easily in the dark as in the sunshine. The main difference is if it’s connected to the plant or not (well, form my not-super-extensive experience in gardening! 😛 ).

    • Photo: Dave Jones

      Dave Jones answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      Tomatoes naturally produce a chemical called ethylene that makes them ripen (other fruits also do it, like bananas, which is why putting unripe tomatoes with ripe bananas makes them ripen quicker). This chemical also makes the tomato go past ripe and into over-ripe and eventually turn bad. Putting the tomato in the balloon wouldn’t stop it from producing the ethylene, so it will still eventually ripen too much. It might not happen as fast as outside the balloon, because it would stop the tomato coming into contact with other things, but still wouldn’t stay perfect forever!

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