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?

I have about 5 tomato plants in the garden. They have plenty of fruit on them. For the past 2-3 weeks the leaves have kind of folded in half. The wasps also have been going in and out of the folded leaves. Lots of wasps. I cut off a leaf just now and saw some pinhead size (some smaller), brown little larvae. I think it's larvae, but they are moving around. They are football shaped. So maybe not larvae just tiny insects. No wings. They are on the top side of the leaf. I think this is going to kill my plants. Does anyone know what this is? I am in Colorado, about 5,700 ft. z5

Seems like whats happening is they were are low on nutrients, started showing the signs(mainly yellow leaves from not having enough nitrogen) especially now that its blooming it uses more. You noticed and were hoping it was just lacking water and added even more which if anything probably made matters worse by keeping the roots from absorbing what little if any nutrients are left if any from the miracle grow soil. Of course this just speculation and my theory of whats going on, considering Im assuming that they have not been feed besides what nutrients were in the potting soil. If there were the case I would let the soil get back to how you had it and FEED it!!

njitgrad: Never had a problem with wilting before in 4 years so I doubt the containers are too hot for the roots. Just because things were fine before doesn't mean they're going to be fine now. Conditions differ every year. If you make your 5-1-1 fresh every year, there could be a difference in the particle size/absorbency of the materials you use, etc. I always water them heavily with each watering. When I say heavily I mean until water seeps out of all sides of the containers including the bottom. Probably about 2 gallons of water per plant. It depends on the rate of watering. If you dump a lot of water quickly, much of it may run off without hydrating the mix properly. Also, if the mix is getting too dry in between waterings, it doesn't matter how much you water when you do water. 5-1-1 is a well-draining mix, so it won't hold onto a lot of water. It's not like growing in-ground. So excess water does nothing, just drains away. The key is enough water at the optimum frequency. A ton of water but not often enough will still lead to drought stress if you're growing in containers with a well-draining mix. I understand that it's frustrating that what you did before is not having the same good results today, but it doesn't really help your plants to reject advice because what you were doing before worked before. It's obviously not working now for some of your plants.