Sorry about the speck. It's one of the minor diseases, if that's any consolation -- it doesn't kill the plant, it goes away with warmer weather, and its impact is usually minor. There are much worse things you could be dealing with. :)

1. Remove the fruit if they seem to be stunted or you really can't stand their appearance. Otherwise, you can leave them on.

2. To my knowledge, speck doesn't affect flavor, nor the natural ripening process. The specks are unsightly and a little hard, but still edible.

3. Hot dry weather should stop its spread, yes. The affected leaves and fruit will still have the specks on them, but you won't get any new infections, so long as you don't water by overhead sprinkle (at least in the evening). If you must water by overhead sprinkler, do so in the morning, so that the plants can dry out quickly. Improving airflow through the plants may help as well.

4. If you remove as much crop debris as you can and turn the rest under, you should be able to minimize problems next year by mulching as soon as you put the plants in the ground (peppers as well as tomatoes). The bacteria reside in the soil and infect the leaves by soil splash; mulching softens the impact of water droplets, and provides a clean surface below the plant. The more you do to control it, the better it'll get over time. You can never fully get rid of it in the soil, though.

If you save seed, make sure it's properly fermented, to make sure there's no bacteria on it. Fermentation for 4-5 days is sufficient.

5. There's no need to treat the wire cages, since the bacteria overwinter in soil. If you're concerned, though, you can wash all the soil off them before storing, and even spritz them down with a dilute bleach solution to make sure. Infection from the cages would be pretty unlikely even without that, though.

I hope that helps... you should be able to get lots of good tomatoes still, even without the (still tasty) specked ones.

--Alison

Alison,
Thank-you very much for the response. I'm feeling much better about it now. Overall the plants are still doing well, it is just something new to me here after growing them for many years.
Art