tiffanytwisted

We're going to give the black plastic bags a whirl and sterilize the pots. That approach seems to resonate with all of the gardeners in training. 👩‍🌾👨‍🌾👩‍🌾👩‍🌾👨‍🌾 
Thanks again for all of your help. You guys are the best! 🙂

I have an upper and lower garden. Both suffer from early blight. Last year, the tomatoes in the upper garden were plentiful while I battled the blight. This year the tomatoes were rotated to the lower garden. The upper got  peppers, zucchini, summer squash, and cucs. Here is where it gets interesting. Some tomato seeds from last years crop germinated and grew in the upper garden along side the peppers I had planted. I left a few grow to observe. The peppers and zucchini were attacked by the same fungi as usual while the over-wintered tomatoes were completely impervious to it. One plant is touching a Cheyenne pepper plant with yellowed leaves and remains green from ground to tip. It appears the seeds that were impervious were the only ones to germinate. One tomato plant has several clusters of fruit I'm hoping will ripen enough to save the seeds and see if the genetics carry over to the next generation. I'll plant resistant varieties now but they are just that, resistant. They still succumb to the blight eventually. I've never seen plants this impervious to the blight.

With a black plastic bag. You might be able to get it hot enough to sterilize it. 

Yes, I forgot that you are growing in pots.  You definitely don't want to leave it in the pots over winter in case the pots might crack, and the soil needs to freeze and stay frozen.  You might want to dump it out onto a tarp and then cover it for the winter. That should kill off any insects or diseases that might be in it.  In the spring, re-cover it with some kind of clear plastic to let the sun sterilize it for a couple of weeks.  Amend it and then you can try using it in the pots again, or just dump it into a planting bed.  Sterilize the pots before refilling them.  Clorox 2 should work fine but rinse it well.  When refilling it, add some stones to the bottom (maybe 2 inches) a layer of thin landscape fabric, then amended soil, and finally a layer of mulch such as bark mulch one layer thick. Amend according to what you intend to grow in it.

If you really think that the soil in the pots is contaminated do the plastic bag thing again. If you think it was just stress just cover it up for the winter. 

We are currently eating zucchini at every meal so I sympathize. When you garden you eat whatever does well that year unless you find a way to off load it onto what used to be friends. 

Thanks so much for all the information. We picked the tomatoes and put the plants in garbage bags. I think we'll be eating tomatoes for awhile. 🙂

Thanks so much for all the information. We picked the tomatoes and put the plants in garbage bags. I think we'll be eating tomatoes for awhile. 🙂

10% bleach is a general sterilizing solution which should not hurt the tomatoes, but don't even try to save damaged fruit. Toss it.  It's not worth the risk of getting sick or contaminating prepared food. Just be sure to rinse them well afterward a bleach treatment.  Unfortunately that will wash away any natural protection that the tomatoes might have so you may see as much or even more rot.
I don't think pruning would have helped so don't fret about it.  The only improvement it may have made is that your tomatoes get a little more sun and ripen a little faster.
Splitting is both a genetic and cultivation problem.  Some varieties are prone to it as they grow very rapidly, and other times it's because they got a little shriveled (not even noticeably) and then a big water event will make the flesh swell more than the skin can handle, so it splits.  Just pick it immediately and eat it.  Mulching helps keep moisture in the soil more evenly, so it will help.  It's the big change from dry to wet that causes the problem.
The leaves drying up and turning crispy black is Early Blight.  Just clean off the dead leaves and keep the area around the plant as clean as possible.  Be sure no soil bounces up from under the plant onto the lower leaves.  Watch your tomatoes, and haul them inside to ripen as soon as you see the bottoms starting to turn red.  
If the plant had gray, fuzzy, soggy leaves at the top or on the stems, then that would be Late Blight.  The infection floats through the air and lands on top of the leaves.  Your plant does not look that way, and it's fairly early for Late Blight although I have seen it already.  Contamination from a previous garden is usually the reason for an earlier infection.
Keep an eye on your tomatoes every day.  Learn what looks normal and what doesn't.  

Pick the tomatoes and let them ripen off vine. We did this for years before "global warming" gave us a long enough growing season to ripen on the vine. Just don't put them too close together as some will rot and it will spread. As a preventative to the tomatoes becoming infected also dip them in a 10% bleach solution. Some diseases will infect the tomatoes and some won't . Whatever the plants have they are not going to be producing more tomatoes so put them in a plastic bag and let it lay in the sum for awhile. This will kill most things. Blight spores die at 150 degrees F. Burning green plants is difficult and you don't want to let they lay around until they dry. No, don't douse them with gasoline!. Burning barrels and gasoline don't mix she said from experience. 
Early blight shows concentric circled brown or black spots and starts from the bottom up. Late blight is a wet gray spot that turns brown or black.  It too starts at the bottom of the plant.  Septoria leaf spot is another one that will eventually turn your leaves brown and it is prevalent at this time of year. It starts with yellow spots on the bottom of the leaves. They come through on the top and turn brown. If you have root rot from all the rain the plant will start to wilt as well as developing yellow and brown leaves. 
The problem is that all are these are caused by fungi that thrive in humid conditions and and are carried by water. See the problem? There isn't much you can do to prevent it this year and this late in the year I wouldn't bother with fungicides. You could remove and destroy the infected plants and spray the others. Depends on what you have as to how well it would work. 
At this point I was going to suggest growing them on black plastic then I saw your post. So 'nother whole ball game. I see no lesions on the leaves so since they are in containers you might look to growing conditions. We have had a lot of rain but it hasn't been sufficient to make it unnecessary to  water pots that contain big plants that are in the sun. Too much water? Those containers do have drainage holes? Irregular watering can stress the plant. No more than one plant to a container? Sufficient air flow? Since they are in pots if they did pick up something it was airborne but now your soil may be contaminated. Fun, huh? You might look into blight and wilt resistant tomatoes. Google it.  Grow them from seed. It isn't that difficult. Maybe the bio lab has some grow lights. 
Oh, and they did grow. Your tomatoes look better than mine. My garden is a swamp. 

Oh Steve, you know us so well!
Is the stem also black, moldy looking and dead, or did this start from the bottom with yellowing and spotted leaves and move up the plant??  That would be Early Blight.
If it's the former, then you probably have Late Blight which could have come from your own soil or contaminated plants on the down wind side of your garden.  Those you can pick off of the vine, wash them lightly, put on a table out of the sun to ripen and eat fresh or cooked.  DO NOT CAN OR FREEZE THEM.  
If it's Early Blight, then as along as they look good, go ahead and let them ripen on the plant if they will.  They are fine to use any way you choose.
If you can send a picture of the foliage with a tomato also, then it would help.
Either way, get the entire plant out of the garden as soon as possible and either bag it for the trash or burn it.  Do not put it in your compost or let it lay around.  Cover crop that area with something that dies off over the winter so you can use it as mulch in the spring.

I'm sure that @lavender and/or @Petee will chime in and help you, soon....