I'm in the Florida Panhandle and my tomato plants are dying as well; first one then the next. They have green tomatoes on them but they are wilting. Most everything else looks to be fine. I don't get it. We've had a drought here so we need to water. ??? moderator's note: split this post into it's own topic
We're in a drought also. We've been watering like crazy. Been harvesting plenty of tomatoes and other stuff. So yes... if you're not getting rain... do water!
Albert, another reply from dry, dry Texas--when you water, water deeply. I give each of our tomato plants two gallons of water when they need it. Tomatoes (and everything else) will look droopy at the end of the day but when they look wilty in the morning, water, and water heavily. Do so early in the morning because evening watering leads to fungus and mildew problems. If you want, you can erect little shade tents for the afternoon. Old umbrellas are nice, but usually there aren't a lot of them at hand, so newspaper folded over a wire ^ and edges held down with rocks does fine. Of course, if you have 100 tomato plants, this could get problematic . . . .
We have at least 100 tomatoes in the garden, we use floating row cover over them when the need arises, and it is actually very economical if you can find it by th roll.
We buy ours at Yoders Produce, 9599 S. Applecreek rd. Fredericksburg, Oh 44627 They are Amish so there is no phone to call them. there hours are M,Tu,Th,F 7am-5pm, Wed 7-7 and Sat 7-4pm. 7'x100'-$14.20, 7'x250'-$35.50, up to 2000' rolls. 10'x500'-$102.15 just to give you an idea they have sizes clear up to 50'x1000' and this is the 1oz. /sq yd size. You can write them for a catalog. they would send you one. Most everything is very reasonably priced.