Tomato disease

Transplanted some tomato plants that I grew from seed, and the deer enjoyed them, so I had to go find some plants. Looked all over town, every place was sold out. Finally found some at a Meijers store, sorry looking, dried up, but they were tomato plants and what I had planted last year. These have grown well all summer long, possibly the biggest plants I've had in the garden, size wise.Fruit has grown large also, I've pick and eaten a few, the rest were growing well. I go through the garden every day pulling weeds, checking things, watering when it doesn't rain. I went out one morning last week, and the tomato plants looked like they hadn't been watered in a month. The leaves were curling up, some had dried, I'm think "what is going on". We got 2 1/2 inches of rain the next day, and I'm thinking ok this will help, It didn't, All my plants are laying down like they would in the fall after harvest. I'm reading where they have Fusarium and Verticillium Wilt. Anyone have experience with this? What do I do now? thanks

Probably the blight, there are few different kinds, some will kill the plant pretty fast, others will kill slower allowing you to continue to harvest, best to try to remove as much blighted leaves as possible without trying to spread it around, most years I avoid it by keeping the plants munched well so the soil can't splash up on the plant, I use grass clippings, add a bit every week.

Could be fusarium wilt, blight, insect damage. Overwatering would also cause leaf curl... Too many causes to count virus will stay in the soil, so best to pull the plant if its no longer producing. A lot of varieties aren't resistant to wilt or blight, so they can get it from infected soil.

An insect to look for would be thrips or spider mites... Look for webbing or spotty leaves for spider mites, look to the soil for thrips, little bouncy buggers. They can do a lot of damage and hide well.

Neem oil can help with both insects and fungus, but not much to donif its blight or wilt virus.

If its powdery looking, with light gray spots, its powdery mildew; pull the plant and BURN it.

That sounds like wilt. Its a fungus. Soil borne fungus.

Once it's in the soil, it's there. You can't kill it. Don't plant tomatoes there (or other nightshade plants like peppers and potatoes) for three years to starve it out. And don't compost those dead tomato vines. Throw them out. If you put them in your compost, you'll just spread the fungus wherever you use that compost.

Usually it's gone after 3 years. That's why the common wisdom is to rotate crops. Put corn there next year. Beans. Squash.

Here is a link that shows you all the nightshade plants:

https://artistamyshealthjourney.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/list-of-nightshade-veggies-and-fruits/

Next year when picking your tomato varieties, usually the seeds or sets are labeled for which problems the variety is resistant (not IMMUNE, but resistant) to. You see things like VFN and/or VFFT, etc. The more letters, the more resistances are bred into that variety. V and the Fs are various wilts.

I have saved seeds from everything that I grow in my garden and not had any issues. Last year an airborn fungus got the tomatoes. This year the deer ate the transplants, and I was forced to buy plants at a big box store and lost them to a soil fungus. The garden where the fungus is was made two years ago using the lasagna method, and was planted for the first time last year. I rotate crops each year, and leave a spot open to amend with grass clippings that get tilled weekly. The spot where the tomatoes grew had corn in it last year. I won't put anything in that spot next year. It'll be my compost pile after removing the tomato vines and burning them.

IMO, the theory of crop rotation is effective up to a point in mega sized mono culture commercial operations. Small family garden plots, especially if they are tilled have the soil so mixed up, that (again this is MY OPINION) rotation is a shot in the dark. It might help, but I doubt it. Often the blights that affect tomatoes are airborne, and travel a good distance. Best way to have a healthy garden: keep the soil healthy. Feed it often, put more back into it than you take out. Tomato seed that is properly fermented will not carry blight to affect future crops.