Thanks so much for the info. Sorry it took me a few days to reply, my work schedule has been a little insane... I had thought leaf spot was possible, but the beginning stage of this fungus was like nothing I could find (picture or description) describing Septoria. It looked like a black/brown dust (raised) was covering the undersides of the leaves- like someone held the plant upside-down and spilled soil on it :) If two of you think that's what it is, then it must be. I thought rust both because that was the ONLY fungus that looked even remotely similar and we had rust on a jasmine vine planted about 6 feet away in the flower bed (this tomato is potted so it does not share soil with any plants). The good news is- after an all out assault of (Safer) fungicide (every 4 days) and seaweed- the plant appears to be in recovery. A couple of the young tomatoes appear to be a bit deformed so I'm going to keep a close eye on it. The leaf loss was quite extensive, so I may have a problem with sun scald. (btw, in a couple of the photos you can see the whole plant behind me- it's the potted plant on the white stand). QUESTIONs: If I start using Fish Emulsion with the seaweed now will it encourage some more leaf production to help the sun scald problem? Or will any new leaf growth be effected by the fungus? The plant is potted so I have not grown anything in the soil before, it must have picked up the disease at the nursery. This is my ONLY potted tomato and I'm noticing a few spots on my other tomatoes (planted in a garden), if I catch this fungus early enough will it contaminate the soil? Sorry if it was unclear, all of my plants are outside (I brought my laptop out and used the camera built into it to take the pics- GO MAC!!!) Thanks again for all the posts, diagnosing this little fungus had truly been driving me crazy!

Thats a lot of hard work you put into it and it looks neat and organized. If I were you, I would not be concerned about weeds and grass. Weeds actually serve a purpose, they mine nutrients and also condition the soil. Say you are in sandy loose soil. Nature will bring in weeds that have a shallow yet thick root system. On the other hand, say you have hard compacted soil. Nature will bring in weeds with deep tap roots that will get in there and bust up that soil. Keep in mind that within two years, the root systems on your trees will be well outside of the area covered by your rings. While I think that the mulch rings will keep your roots protected in year #1, I see no benefit in later years. Also, your watering system may not actually be the best set up. Tree roots spread out in search of water. If you provide routine water within a 2' diamater of the tree, the roots are not being encouraged to spread out and develop. For the first year, it should be fine. However, you might want to think about watering further out from the trees. One last thing, I would recommend pulling the mulch back from the trunk of the tree. You could cause the trunk to rot. This post was edited by poolecw on Tue, Jun 10, 14 at 11:42

The pink camellia looks like Jean Clere to me. If so, this camellia japonica is a sport of Aspasia MacArthur. This lovely white bloom with a few deep pink spots has many sports including Jean Clere, Margaret Davis, and many others. I have Margaret Davis. It has white blooms with a red edge. However it also has blooms that are like three other sports as well as the parent plant, Aspasia MacArthur. If your area has a camellia show, you may want to take in a bloom for identification or to see if there are blooms like this at the show.

Early watering of trees before a night time freeze ABSOLUTELY does give some protection in a "dry" climate or in any area of the country, for that matter, during a period with a low outside relative humidity. I would do exactly what Jose did to INTENTIONALLY increase the relative humidity around my little in ground trees. Water vapor is by far the largest green house gas that we have....man made or other wise....(Al Gore and his Global Warming crowd & our news Media would prefer that you not know this science fact). By increasing the water vapor in the areas around these trees, you WILL effectively trap some of the ground's "radiation" heat around those trees. What is trapped by this added water vapor is some of radiation heat that is quickly lost to the atmosphere after the sun goes down. Ever notice how hot a desert is in the daytime......and then how cold it is at night???? This large variation in temperature occurs simply because there is no humidity (water vapor) in the desert air. If there was some water vapor in the air, the daytime and night time temperatures wouldn't swing as much. If you could somehow increase the relative humidity of the desert air, it simply would not get as cold at night.....nor as hot during the daytime. I do agree, however, that there is also some good benefits to watering at the time of coldest temperature (closer to sunrise)....due to the latent heat of fusion effects that occur right at the freeing point (melting point) of water as it starts to change from the liquid phase (water) to the solid phase (ice). Too, it is because of this same latent effect that provides protection to fruit trees that have ice already on the branches. Keep the water sprinklers on even when you see ice (or frost) on the leaves and branches and this latent heat will keep the temperature from dropping below 32 deg. F.........that is a warm enough temperature to save a lot of trees from severe damage. Too, if somehow you can't prevent plain ole frost from forming on your trees (which can easily occur at temperatures as high as 40 deg F in my area)..........get at them with a sprinkler or hose pipe as soon as you see it and you WILL PREVENT some damage. I can get these kinds of "surprise" frosts in my area once in a while when the weather man was a bit off with his forecast..... Dan