I planted 12" high heirloom tomatoes in May in a raised bed garden. They were slow growing but are now more than 6 ft. tall and have dozens of tomatoes, some quite large. They are NOT turning red! My brother planted the same tomatoes at the same time and has a windowsill full of RED tomatoes. I had a similar problem last year. I had some turn red and others never turned. It did not help to put them in a bag with a banana, put them on the windowsill in the sun - nothing. They get lots of sun through the day. What am I doing wrong?

Why are you picking them before they are ripe?

Tomatoes picked early and ripened inside must be at a certain stage of maturity or they won't ripen.

I am not picking them early. They are still on the vine.

I'm very confused... You talk mostly about putting them on a windowsill in a bag with bananas in the sun. I made an assumption.

I'll try again. What variety of tomatoes did you grow? Does your brother live in the same area? What sun exposure do your tomatoes get compared to what your brother's get? Do you both fertilize exactly the same? Water the same?

The optimum temperature for ripening tomatoes on the vine is 70 to 75F. It's been hotter than that where you live. It looks like cooler temperatures are forecast for your area so your tomatoes should ripen in a week or two. If you want to hurry things along you might put up some shade cloth.

I'm guessing here, but your brother probably has his tomatoes in a slightly cooler spot.

Good luck and let us know what happens!

Thank you both. People have told me to try the banana thing if they don't ripen. I did that last year with no success. So, this year I have NOT picked them. My brother and I have the same sun exposure and watering routine. I am unsure if he fertilizes. I do not. I do have loads on the vine, maybe cooler weather will help. (I want to make roasted tomato soup!)

Sometimes cutting down water helps speed up ripening. Just enough to slightly stress the plant but not to the point that it wilts.

Forget the bag and banana. Once they reach the blush stage, tomatoes will redden and ripen off the vine at room temperature just sitting out on the counter.

Thanks everyone!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Nice People,
You all gave really good advice. 99.999% of the time tomatoes take a long time to ripen due to issues with temperature and water and stress. I've lived in a screaming hot place for a lot of years so I understand how that effects my harvest. I'm sure your advice will help the OP.
But .001% of the time that is not the case. And I believe it happened to me so I would just like to add these comments for the record. Just in case., this is good for everyone to know. I experienced the same issue for a few years. My tomatoes would take forever to ripen even after the temps cooled down for several weeks. Just before the first frost I would have to harvest a few slightly ripe tomatoes and lots and lots of green ones. My red peppers would stay green and just rot on the plants without turning red.
Finally, I spent weeks online researching what the problem might be.
I learned.... that chlorophyll dominates the tomatoes when they are forming and growing and then an enzyme called ACC kicks in which in turn produces ethylene, a hormone which starts the licopene production which is the pigment that makes tomatoes red. My research produced some very dry scientific info. I am including it here. You don't need to read it. It's very boring. But I wanted to back up my research with scientific facts.
https://blog.drjimz.com/why-ar...
https://www.mdpi.com/2079-7737...
Look up... University of Florida... Ripening tomatoes with ethylene (My computer won't let me copy the PDF URL.

I'll just jump to the finish. In the end I found out that even though my garden had lots of good fungi and bacteria it was missing something necessary for nightshades to ripen. Honestly, this was 10 years ago and I wasn't able to come to an exact conclusion of what it was missing but it had something to do with my soil or plants not having an enzyme which was necessary to produce some amino acids. Anyway, I kept amending my soil with good stuff and after a couple of years it stopped happening.
Just wanted to mention it. Happy gardening.

I really appreciate all the advice!

I've read that even if your unripe tomatoes have even a hint of pink, they will ripen inside.

I have tomatoes! I guess patience was what was required. Thanks all!