Hi Greg, sounds like blossom-end rot, which can be caused from lack of calcium (I always lime my soil before planting my toms out) but it can also be caused by infrequent watering, perhaps you are letting them get too dry between waterings and as you say the leaves are browning this could be the problem, tomatoes, when fruiting should never become too dry, when I first started growing my own I did this thinking it would make them send their roots deeper, as it does for many plants, but with toms its not a good idea, and dont worry, if it is rot its not a disease, this info also applies to capsicums.

Hi Annette, Thanks for the diagnosis. I'll lime next year (I assume its too late to try again this year). Keeping soil moisture correct is pretty challenging given the variable weather/temps this summer. How do you do it? Blossom-end rot makes the fruit still come out, but rotten at the bottom?

With great difficulty Greg, although I was fortunate this year and didn't have any problems with rot, my toms have all had it, will be pulled out this weekend, with water restrictions it is really hard to give them as much as they need, but I managed fairly well, what we've done for the last couple of years is incorporated heaps of organic matter into the soil, cow manure and mushroom compost, plus we have 2 compost bins in continuos work, we start all our seeds in a greenhouse in very late winter so they are ready to be planted out in early spring. The addition of all this manure and compost has really helped with soil moisture retention, although the weather has been extreme, on Sunday it was 43 degrees here, I was up early and gave all the veges a good soaking, on Monday it was showery and pleasant with mid 20 degrees, yesterday 35! I am going to try to get another crop of toms in, I've got some seedlings coming up now, I think it's going to be a long hot summer, so its worth a try. I don't know how the fruit is when it's got rot because when my toms have had it in the past I chucked them in the compost. Try again this year, you never know and get plenty of organic matter into your soil, oh, and one more thing I do, I regularly spray with Seasol, this does seem to help beat heat stress, (your plants that is) Good luck!

Hi Annette - Sorry, forgot to put in that I'm in Sydney so I experienced the 43 degree day myself! One more Q: my other toms are now rotting from the sides. Weird. I have heaps of compost, mulch, blood&bone in this bed... its a new bed this year, maybe everything needed to mellow. Do you know what this new disorder is? Its on fruit that's about 1/2 way to ripe. Pictures on site linked below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomoto rot pics

Hi Greg, sorry its taken me so long to get back to you Im having trouble logging in, GardenWeb cannot find me, (a long story,hopefully they will fix it soon, they've also changed my username) Your toms are sunburnt, as you said they lost some foliage from browning off, the actual tomatoes are probably getting too much sun on them, when this happens to my plants I put some cheap bamboo stakes around the plants and peg some shadecloth on, tomatoes are temperature ripened with the heat not by the sun, but even though they are scorched they will still ripen up and are edible, just slice off the scorched area, and hey, half a homegrown tomato is better than none, lol !!!