Ana

Maybe if you post a picture of the hard tomatoes I can come up with some answer.

Sometimes nutrient deficiencies can cause that or insect damage like the stinkbugs?

In my garden tomatoes are at the end, it is too hot already, when did you plant yours? and when did you notice the hard skins? did you get at least some tomatoes early in the season? The varieties that you planted produce decent tomatoes. If you have problems with nematodes I would not recommend raised beds, only containers. When grown in containers we have to pay special attention to fertilizers especially with the heat and rains.

Silvia

My tomatoes are pretty much done now. They gave me many tomatoes. I noticed thta skin is impossible to chew! Any tomatoes type, in any bed or container, with the stink bugs damage or without.
The only think that I found unusual is that large tomatoes are sitting on the plant for almost 2 weeks without growing in size or getting red. That's maybe when they get hard skin. What should I do to expedite ripenning?

Were the tomatoes getting enough sun? Too many leaves might be blocking the sun and make them slow to ripen.

Ana,

Next season try to feed the tomatoes in containers using 2 kinds of fertilizer, in the beginning use a nitrogen based, when they get flowers a low nitrogen. When they get fruits switch between the two. Again this is not scientific of any kind, this is what I do and works for me.

And keep the fruit if possible with as many leaves as you can to prevent sunscald.

To avoid stink bugs damage pick the fruit as soon as they have a blush of color and ripen them indoors, not on a window.

Silvia

mine are getting full sun for all day. They don't really have many thick leaves so they get sun exposure, and I think they get overdry because i can put water only when I come from work once a day.
Silvia, I was doing the same as you with fertilizing, but stopped 2 weeks ago because they were having signs of going down.
Does fertilizer make tomatoes ripen quicker?

Ana, I don't think there is a magic product to let the tomatoes ripen quickly, if there was such a product then a lot of people would be using it.

Fertilizer helps in case of blotchy ripening and other problems due to deficiency.

The heat also cause problems in ripening, so that might be a simple answer.

Silvia

Here is a link that might be useful: tomato problems

Thanks Silvia, for posting the Link... it's interesting, and so many of the deficiencies are very similar in appearance, and also look like damage from pests..... I'm thinking that a dose of liquid fertilizer might be the solution to the deficiency-problem, maybe something like Miracle-Gro ? or a dose of Fish-Emulsion ? sally

Sally,

I agree with you that look similar to insect damage, that is the reason that we have to think about all the possible options.

Silvia

Here is a link that might be useful: stink bug damage