growing tomatoes rot

Do my Tomatoes have the Plague?

I am a novice gardener and growing tomatoes (roma & celebrity) in 6 gallon paint buckets on my driveway (the buckets have holes drilled in the bottom for drainage). I live in a 6B zone, we are having 90+ degree days as of late. I have started watering each plant twice a day(~9am & noon), since they look dry, but now have noticed some strange things.

I know those bumps on the stems are a nematode infestation. (microscopic worms that inhabit soil and like to go up tomato stems and “nest” in stems. That’s what the lumps are.)
By nesting in the stem, they basically kill your tomato and dying leaves are part of the symptom. I can safetly assure you they are dying as a result.
Holes in leaves are from insects. I f your plants were healthy, pesticide dust would fix it. That’s the least of your problems.
According to my garden book: the rot on the bottom of the fruit is called “blossom-end rot” and “is from a poor calcium uptake due to an uneven supply of water.” That means being in pots being watered twice a day isn’t even enough for them.
Your tomato crop isn’t going to be so good this year.
Here’s two things to do next time to do better: (choose one or both.)
#1) Buy a bag of top soil or garden soil for each tomato. Stab holes in bottom of each bag for drainage. Dig holes in yard deep enough to accomodate 3/4 of each bag and insert whole bag into hole. Fill around it securely.Open top of bag and then plant tomato directly into this pure, uncontaminated soil. This should help prevent nematodes and disease.
#2) And/ or purchase nematode resistant tomato seeds. It’s unlikely you’ll find cultivars of that breed at your local garden shop. I have to buy the seed from Parkseed.com and sprout them myself from scratch. {Search “nematode resistent” in Parkseed.} I did that this year and for the first time, no stem bumps!

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