Please help identify

[Farmette]

I have used the resources in this thread but maybe I am missing something...
This is a Bulgarian Triumph plant that was growing fine, but then the main stem started to grow bent and developed this on the stems. Can you help me identify what disease this is and your opinion on whether or not to pull the whole plant.
Thanks!

[Farmette]

Bumping this up...have already pulled the affected plants. Need to know what this is and if I should be pulling any others that become affected. This is not my garden but my church garden (food is donated to food pantry), so if I pull all 50 plants, I am affecting ALOT of people.
Please respond with any educated guesses.
Thanks!

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Farmette

Bumping this up...have already pulled the affected plants. Need to know what this is and if I should be pulling any others that become affected. This is not my garden but my church garden (food is donated to food pantry), so if I pull all 50 plants, I am affecting ALOT of people.
Please respond with any educated guesses.
Thanks!

Stem color changes like that occur with many diseases but you being in WI you don't have to worry that much about the systemic soilborne diseases.

Which begs the question what kind of spots did you find on the leaves b'c my guess is it would primarily be one or more of the foliage diseases that's the cause of it, of which Early Blight ( A. solani) and Septoria would be the most common and Bacterial Speck and Bacterial Spot the two most common bacterial ones.

But all four of those should show leaf symptoms as well.

If your plants were so affected then it seems to me that other plants in the church garden, not yours, would also be infected since all four of those foliage diseases are spread primarily by wind and rain.

[Farmette]

Carolyn:
So far those are the only two plants showing symptoms. Here is a picture of one of the leaves.
We had been having very hot weather here, but then last week have had periods of rain, followed by sun.
We have just picked alot of tomatoes and have many more on the vine, so I would hate to have to pull the plants now.
Don't know if the leaf picture helps with diagnosis. I will start looking into those that you mentioned, but I have had Early Blight and Septoria in a different garden and have managed to keep the plants in ground until the end of harvest.