Disease issues- 2 years running

[snagged]

Had a catastrophic event tonight for the second year in a row. Background story is I grow tomatoes in an organic community garden. This year, I had an entirely new plot. Grew different varieties from seed for the first time. Two years in a row now, in early summer, I show up to plants with gnarled stems (looks like the wind-gnarled trees you see on high mountain tops), downturned and twisted leaves; blistering, squaring, and some browning of the main stem, and the stems feel like Styrofoam when snapped. Also some slight yellowing of the edge of the leaves. As with last year, I am pulling and destroying. Last year, I planted some big box Rutgers in their place which did well until deer ate them in early fall. This year, I may just throw in the towel and plant pumpkin seeds.

Any idea what this disease is? The main stem looks like the canker bacterial disease on Cornell's site.

Am I doing the right thing by pulling and destroying?

Anything I can do to prevent or am I just unlucky? It doesn't seem like anyone else in the community garden has this problem and some folks are out there watering all the time. I did not add water after the plants got established. Probably haven't watered in a month other than rainfall since we seem to be getting plenty lately. Plants were mulched both years.

Also, it happened a few days after applying insecticidal soap for the first time both years. But, I think this is just a coincidence since one plant was showing signs of the problem before and it rained a couple of days after the insecticidal soap.

Extremely frustrating. I've lost 4 of 8 large plants. I have 2 more I think are going down soon. Thank heavens I have some tomatoes in pots doing well at home.

http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/...psdef3b179.png
http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/...psf87f119c.png
http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/...psf1d70fd9.png

http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/...ps64aebb06.png

http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3b747068.png