I have the same issue going on with my Mortgage Lifters...did anyone provide any insight about what is causing this for you? Did the problem get resolved? Thanks!

Can you post a picture of the whole bed? I'm curious about the black tarp around the plant. Is it around all of your plants? In this picture it looks like the tarp is slanting slightly inward toward the base of the plant, maybe creating an area of pooled water against the stem? If so, and you have had a lot of rain and not great drainage, it could have weakened the lower stem causing it to fall over. Just an idea.

" My biggest problems are blossom end rot, sunscald, vines withering, and tomatoes rotting before they ripen. " **** It seems to me that you need to make some diagnoses first in order to understand what's going on. And having grown over 2000 different varieties, most of them by sprawling, I can't see that any of the above would be directly related to how you grow your tomatoes. I have quite a few friends in S Cal and they also grown theirs by sprawling as long as they don't have a Root Knot Nematode or Fusarium problem in their soil. Questions to ask are whether the wilted plants are wilting due to lack of water or due to systemic diseases such as RKN's or Fusarium, which are a problem for lots of folks in s Cal. Or are you dealing with the more common folaige diseases that can be found almost everywhere. The latter are not usually associated with wilting, though. Are the rottinmg fruits only those fruiits that make contact with the soil? Or are the plants so close together and humidity high from irrigation that the fungi and bacteria known to infect fruits under those conditions are the problem. Sunscald is usually due to lack of adequate foliage cover and/or exposure of fruits after harvest has started and rearrangement of the vines. BER is a complex physiological problem with many variables and right now there's lots of other issues to attack, but you might read the article on BER in the FAQ at the top of this first page. Finally, and I think the most important, is when you're growing your tomatoes. Almost all my S Cal friends grow two crops a year b'c trying to keep plants going thru the hot summer and get decent fruit set is not a good idea. So growing two crops a year I think you might consider. Hope that helps. Carolyn

I used to think a balanced fertilizer right off the bat was very important back when I was a green horn but that has changed with experience. Seedlings need a fertilizer higher in phosphorus for good root development IMO. Once they have a proper root system to support the plant then you can give them a balanced fertilizer. People who grow to sell are not selling healthy plants. They have lush top growth but the root system alone can't support the plant unless they are pumped up with fertilizer and watered often. I prefer focusing on the root system so that the plants can develop faster on their own and once planted in the ground they don't need constant fertilizer or watering. I also inoculate with endo and ecto mycorrhizae so they make better use of fertilizer and don't need as much added.