I just take off the leaves below the trusses if they've gone yellow, I think its age as much as sun that ripens them but I may be wrong

I'm looking at getting rid of the foliage on the bottom part of our tom plants. Let more light in to ripen the fruit. Pamg it is sunlight that encourages the tomatoes to ripen - as we are not seeing a lot of in our neck of the woods toms. are taking a long time to ripen. I've been known to remove almost all the leaves once all the trusses have set.

you're probably right Mg, my greenhouse is double glazed and I must say its been a brilliant year for toms , cues and peppers, that hot spell seems to have brought them on early and in leaps & bounds

I take off any leaves which touch the ground. I have tried both ways, taking off more leaves and leaving on but found no difference but then, we get a lot of sun. I grow mine under a plastic A-frame (rebar bent into an A) both ends open. We used to get blight here. I also find they ripen sooner this way as they don't suffer so much cool nights.

We didn't get the very hot spell you had down south, for us ripening tomatoes is always a bit of a challenge.

Yes, take off all the branches underneath the first truss , then follow the trusses up the plant once they are empty of tomatoes. For outside plants you should also stop the plant after 4 or 5 trusses have set, anymore than that and it's likley what fruit it produces will not ripen. I am not surprised the season is late we did have a hard winter and a later start to the outside growing season. We have suffered blight on our site for a few years now , so I don't grow them outside anymore.

thanks everyone