I don't think their stems broke because I put them around the wire ring and then tie them to it as they grow (this is the format I use http://www.santarosa.fl.gov/extension/articles/japtomatoring.html). I did this last Fall and I got over 60 lbs of tomatoes from 2 Marion and 2 Better Boy plants. It was amazing. I got the idea from Tom Maccubbin's Florida Home Grown book (the bible for FL garden, I think....) But anything is possible with tomatoes as we all know. I may have inadvertently scraped the stem, etc. Who knows. I drenched the soil with dithane-45 yesterday and then did a foliar sulfur spray last night. I know it's overkill, but I figured I need to wipe out whatever it is as quickly as possible. The german queen plant came back a bit but it's still rather wilty and sad. Here's a breakdown of the timeline of what I did and what happened in case any of you deal with this: 1. Late February - (weather is in 40s-50s, no rain) prepare 6' circle by breaking up soil and spade in 25 lbs Black Kow compost. Area used to be a pine bark mulch area with general use landscape plants such as muhly grass and conifers. Area has light shade in morning and full sun in afternoon (I think this may be part of problem- perhaps lack of strong morning sun encourages fungus....). 2. Early March (after last Frost) - set up wire ring and fill ring with 50 lbs Black Kow compost, 1/2 bale peat moss and 10 lbs 6-6-6- and crushed eggshells. 3. Early March - Plant 4 tomato plants evenly spaced around each ring. 4. Early March - begin weekly spray of Fish Emulsion / Organocide or Neem Oil 5. Early March - 2 days after planting, first Beefsteak wilts and dies 6. Early March - Remove beefsteak, drench soil with organocide 7. Mid March - Weather warms up to 80s, flea beetles attack, spray with organocide 8. Mid March - Cold snap comes in, Flea Beetles disappear 9. Late March - 2nd Beefsteak wilts and dies; other plants growing vigorously with flowers and first fruit set 10. Early April - First soil drench with Dithane 45 11. Early April - Continue spray with neem oil. Stop fish emulsion and move to Worm's Way solid fertilizer made with guano, kelp, etc. 12. Early April - Strong winds and light rain burn edges of Tomato plant leaves 13. April 14 - Weather system moves in and dumps lots of much needed rain and not-needed wind. 14. April 15 - It's a nice sunny days, temps in low 70s. Top shoots (including leaves and flowers) of German Queen plant are wilted to point of almost dry BUT bottom stems, leaves and shoots perfectly fine. I check soil for moisture- it's moist. I look for any sign of mechanical injury or broken stem - there is none. I delicately dig around base of plant looking for cut worm, etc. There is none. Other plants are not wilting. I drench soil with Dithane 45 and then foliar spray with Sulfur (Bonide) at night. 15. April 16 - Wash foliar spray off with hose. german queen tomato plant is still a little wilted but not as bad as yesterday. So I don't know what is going to happen. The GQ may die suddenly like Beefsteak or have a slow and protracted wilting death. If she does kick the bucket, I'll make sure to cut the stem and see if there are any clues in there.... When you guys spray, do you leave the spray on or wash it off later? Whenever I have sprayed organocide or copper in early AM (like 6 AM), the plants sometimes get leaf burn (especially my cukes and squash!!). So, my nursery friend recommended I spray them the night before and then wash spray off in the early AM before the sun can fry the plants. Do you agree with this?

You may be watering too much. Tomatoes like a good drink of water once or twice a week. Also watering in the morning is better (if you have to water overhead.) That way the leaves have time to dry making them less susceptible to disease.

So sorry this posted twice! I didn't see the other one as posted (I sent it a few hours ago), and wasn't sure I had clicked on submit.

I do not know the sources that will provide them but I can tell you in the near future there will be good, if not very good, tasting lines based on heirlooms that have multiple disease resistances. Some of the other issues like heavy cracking will also be reduced if not overcome. There have been a few commercial lines based on heirlooms with disease resistance available in the past few years but they tend to be only available through commercial sales or in Europe. Some I have tried seem to be slanted towards putting out something that has the "look" (fasciated types) combined with the disease resistance rather than the flavor. If anyone has some 'Eugenia' seed I would like to try it. It is one such commercial line from Europe (Italy) that has multiple disease resistances. There are also 'Cuore di Bue' types grown that have verticillium resistance now. Still grafted heirlooms are a good way to go if you want to spend the money. One can even find 2 varieties grafted onto the same rootstock. A few companies offered grafted mail order plants. There may be some issue with regional and disease types when some company decides which rootstock to use for grafting (e.g. they may have not chose the best rootstock for your issues).