Brandywine is way over hyped. I gave up on Brandywine. There are healthy vigorous tomatoes will no health issues. Why bother with always sickly Brandywine and they taste even better than Brandywine. Look at the evidence. Only BW has the problem. Therefore the solution is obvious. Get rid of BW and you will live a happy tomato life.

The top picture looks, to me, more like they've been physically broken or chewed, either by a human, animal or insect.

Hello Tybstar,

I am concerned that your plants may have some type of blight, if I recall correctly there have been reports on this forum of cases (or suspected cases) in southern California of late blight. But I don't see any of the typical brown spots on the stems, of course even looking at your other pictures at the link, I am unable to see very much of the stems other than the ones like those in this post. The one with the tomato and the dried stems looks similar to early blight.

Take a look at the picutures in the link below, and compare them to your plants. Perhaps that will tell you what is going on with your tomatoes.

Ignore what gardendawgie says about BW (Brandywines) lots of people grow them successfully. I think he is just jealous. :-) Different people, in the same and different areas get different results with the same variety, people even get different results in different years with the same variety! (And they get different results with different var. . . . ah never mind, you get the picure.)

Betsy

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Problem Solver (Photos for Diagnostics)

Thanks, Betsy! I am working on controlling blight, if that's what it is. I don't see the concentric spots--most of the yellowing is starting at the margins of the leaves. We'll see what happens! Thanks for the link, it's very helpful.

tybstar, I grow pink Brandywines and I'll be the first to admit they're temperamental about setting fruit early in the season. I think they need to get to a certain size or age to really take fruiting seriously. :) I expect the first three trusses to drop unpollinated... the fourth may set one, then after that they seem to get into the swing of things. So be patient, the shriveled buds in your first picture are just dropping off because pollination didn't work out.

The second pic worries me a bit, as that sort of stem death isn't normal. It might be early blight, which you already know you have... it may have gotten damaged in the process of trying to control the blight, too. Consider it a one-off and use the tomato as a fried greenie (mmm)... but if it happens more than this once, you have a problem. Tomato stems don't normally die if there's a healthy green fruit on the end of them.