Hi your image link isn't working.. What you describe could be anything from hail damage, to aphids, to CMV (virus). It could also be something you are spraying on them that it is sensitive to.

I am new to gardening and started some tomatoes from seeds about a month ago. Things grew so great and then a few days ago I started seeing tiny brown spots on the larger under leaves. I am worried that they might already have a bad fungus or something. They are organic heirloom plants and this happened the day before I started taking them outdoors to harden them off. they have been growing under some grow lights- full spectrum. I water around the base with a plant sprayer/mist. they have gotten 14 hrs of light since they emerged and a little fish/kelp mixture a few times. Can I just pinch off the spotted leaves prior to planting in the ground or is this a really bad sign that they will get a blight or fungal disease later on? thanks for any and all responses! :)

Lyn you're talking about corn meal, not cottonseed meal. I almost never mention cottonseed meal. But if I do a search/replace in your post and sub in corn meal, then I would agree. I'm extremely supportive of using corn meal to control fungus. In fact the performance of corn meal in treating fungal disease in turf is the main reason I converted from chemicals to organics. That was in 2002. I've been using it successfully every year since. And yet Texas A&M University is publishing everything they can to squash the idea that corn meal has any effectiveness. To me that's simple misdirection of education. If they can't make it work, they need to come look at my lawn and figure out what they're doing wrong. I have some ideas about what they're doing wrong, but haven't seen their research. The silly thing is that it was TAMU who first published the idea that corn meal was an effective tool against disease (in peanuts). That was back in the 90s and they've been fighting against themselves ever since. Anyway you can't use corn meal once you've used a chemical fungicide. Corn depends on the growth of a predatory fungus for its effectiveness. If you have a fungicide down then that beneficial fungus will not thrive in sufficient populations to do anything. If it has been several weeks since you used the fungicide you could try applying a very light dusting of compost to restore the beneficial microbes and then the corn meal. >>green edge which is 100% organic slow release I just want to comment on the idea that organic fertilizer is slow release. Chemical fertilizers work on several principles but generally those are chemical imbalances forcing the fertilizer into the roots as quickly as the roots will take them in. Organic fertilizer is made from food materials like corn, wheat, soybean, cottonseed, alfalfa, etc. That food becomes food for the living microbes (bacteria, fungi, microarthropods, and others) at the surface of the soil. As the original food/fertilizer decomposes from the microbes, then subsurface microbes decompose the byproducts from the first level decomposers. The process of a succession of microbes decomposing previous decomposers is so complicated it is referred to as the soil food web. At about 3 weeks after the original application of food/fertilizer to the surface, the resulting byproduct of decomposition is actual NPK type of plant food in a form akin to what comes in a bag of chemical fertilizer. So it is not that organic fertilizer is "slow release" so much as it just takes a really long time for the biology of the soil to convert the original mammal food to plant food. But this is the way Mother Nature has designed the process. It has worked for a really long time. On the other hand, chemical fertilizers that call themselves 'slow release' are caused to be that way by coating them in a slow dissolving chemicals.

Pls say what it means: "was a difficult plant for me to acquire"? Did you ask the Supplier for a refund? It's pretty appropriate. In 20 yrs. of growing Hoyas, I've never seen this & STRONGLY suggest you get rid of it. Your comment: "you won’t hang on to it forever" is irrelevant as contagion from an infected plant can be quick; it needs no time at all. Sorry.