Sorry to hear about your BER problem. That's alot of rot on one tomato. I have a bunch of tomato plants this year and they all have set fruit. I do have one plant that is getting BER. As soon as I notice it, I get rid of the tomato.......don't want to waste any plant energy on bad tomatoes. As soon as I see a little spot of BER I yank it. So far on my one bad plant, every tomato has had a BER problem. Funny, I can't figure out why, and I haven't had a BER problem in the past. I added 'a little' lime and some gypsum to the soil, and I'm not going to water it until it really needs it, and let's see what happens. I do have one plant in a two 5 gal bucket SWC, and that plant is doing really well. It's really big, with dark green super leaves, and has a few tomatoes on it. The reservoir probably holds about a gallon, and it needs filling every couple of days due to the plants size, and all the hot dry weather we have been having lately.

I think we can rule out bark split since that usually occurs near the base and affects a larger part of the plant. Borer is a possibility, but that should have occurred in the fall, not in the winter. It if is that, there will be a section of hollow stem below the dead part. Just cut off the dead part. Drought is more like bark split since it tends to kill larger stems that are fed by a single root. It can occur on a single branch if a canker form on that branch. A very likely possibility now is snow damage. It may have bent and broken the branch. Check to see if it is broken. If so, just cut if off. Another possibility is that you had deep snow and the brown part was sticking out of the snow and got a bad case of winterburn. If so, let it go and see how it shapes up after the new growth comes out. Here is a link that might be useful: How to care for rhododendrons

Embedding images from Picasa is not doable, as far as I know. They check where the image is linked from to stop people from using their bandwidth. They want you to go to their pages to view the pictures.

it is in a container. I said I spray regularly because I had flies that came regularly to invade the plant.I have tomato dust, Yates prytherum spray and a Eco oil botanic oil that is to be diluted with water. I dont use them all at once only when i see flies I live in Adelaide. Its just started Spring here and for the last week it was raining and extremely windy like crazy and thats also the reason why the stem got blown off and broken. but the wheather is now sunny and warm like spring. I checked the humidity yesterday I think its been around 80-90% these days. I have been growing this plant for almost 1 and a half years now. I didnt know how to care and in first half year of planting it almost died on me because i didnt drain out water and didnt feed much fertiliser and the soil was always wet almost drowned it. I did have fly pests problems before but its now getting better (only a few will come around, so i dont think this condition is caused by the flies). For the past half year its been healthy and green but now is getting sick. I did some research and now I keep it well drained by putting a pot feet, regular tomato fertiliser (to increase nitrogen as I didnt feed much anything before). seaweed solution just added yesterday. I fertilise every 10-14 days. I water when the soil down 5 cm is dry to touch. Water til water comes out of drainage hole. For the stem, I guess I have to cut it off, the leaves now looking very curly. Can I use it to clone another plant??? My current plant stem is not straight i guess the seeds were crowded and no space when i first put them.. Thank you for reading this long reply. I just cant figure out what is the disease causing this problem. Susan Here is a link that might be useful: