Jo Ellen - your tomatoes look fine. I think the only thing Dawn might add is to back off a bit on the watering. I learned from Dawn to not stress too much about the plant unless something HORRIBLY appear wrong. As long as your getting fruit, it's all good.

Your apple tree appears to have a fungus....may be water related also. Might do a search of fruit tree fungus.

That pumpkin conceiving was really somethin', huh??? Better get a sling ready for that baby!

Paula

Jo,

Paula's right--you're worrying about nothing. Ignore the slightly yellow leaves and PLEASE stop removing them from the plant. Each leaf has an important role to play by conducting photosynthesis, so when you remove a leaf unnecessarily, you're hurting the plants' performance.

Yellow leaves (and I mean bright yellow, not slightly yellowish-green) indicate stress, and the stress can be almost anything....too much water, too little water, poorly drained soil, soil that drains too fast, insect damage, nematodes, yada, yada, yada. In the absence of other symptoms, I wouldn't worry about it. Sometimes, older leaves just yellow and fall off because their job is done, they're old, they're tired and they're shaded out by foliage above them. Yellow leaves are just a part of growing tomatoes. Remember, your tomatoes are working plants and it is their job to produce tasty tomatoes...it is NOT their job to look perfect and be an ornamental plant. That's the job of begonias or daisies or zinnias.

With the apple, Paula's right on with that diagnosis too. It is some sort of fungal leaf spot. Google something like 'apple disease fungal leaf spot' and see which one sounds most like what you're seeing. The only ones I know the name of are Cedar Apple Rust and Frogeye Spot, but there are many others. A fungicide is likely needed. Apples are very hard to grow here, and even harder to grow organically.

Pumpkin sex? In the garden? I hope it wasn't in front of those sweet, innocent children of yours!

Dawn

I agree with Dawn and Paula on the tomato leaves. They look great. In my opinion from my experience what I see on yours is most likely caused by watering. Whether rain or over watering. Basically a temporary uptake issue I call it. Nothing to be the least bit concerned about. Jay

Thanks guys, I'll lay off the tomatoes. I think my apples may have cedar apple rust and am Googling for more information now.

I made the kids cover their eyes for the pumpkin sex.

Boom-chicka-wah-wah!

Jo

Jo Ellen - you're welcome! I was the same way a couple of years ago when I first started getting serious about gardening. Funny thing happened thanks to all the great guidance I've found here. The only thing I take seriously about it now is planning it in January!

and wow! Jay & Dawn - I feel like I just got moved to the "head of the class"! LOL

Paula

Paula,

You've been at the head of the class for a long time now, lol. Didn't you know that?

I'm thrilled we have so many knowledgeable gardeners on this forum. It is SUCH a challenge gardening in each and every part of Oklahoma, and the more heads thinking of 'solutions' to all our garden problems, the better.

It is odd how very different the gardening conditions in various geographic regions of our state can be, and gardeners in western OK, for example, are gardening in an entirely different environment from those in eastern OK. Folks like you and me and others who live sort of along the I35 corridor are in the middle and may see the same conditions as western or eastern OK depending on what week or month it is.

Jo,

Cedar Apple Rust has very specific symptoms so if that it what it is, you'll be able to figure it out pretty easily.

CAR is probably the reason we don't have a big apple-growing industry here. I hate CAR and it is the reason I don't plant apples. However, two neighbors within a mile of me have apple trees and don't have CAR, so I guess you never know. After watching their trees for several years here, I'm tempted to plant Granny Smith apples becuase they grow for them and don't seem to have CAR problems.

Dawn

I think Oklahoma weather is always surprising.

This year was a good example when Burneyville temps in Apr were 33-83, and for May were 39-94, and that's about as far south as you can go in Oklahoma.

On the other hand, here in Grove which is almost Missouri, had temps of 33-81 in April, and 44-86 in May. We had crops in the ground here while you were still worried about a frost in central and southern Oklahoma. Of course, winter will likely come several weeks earlier for us, but even that isn't a sure thing.

Carol,

The temps here in May drove me nuts. We usually go a degree or two colder than Burneyville since the weather station is a slightly higher elevation, but even so, the frost the first week in May kinda shocked me. (It was the third consecutive year we've had a light frost the first week in May, so maybe it shouldn't surprise me any more.) Talk about going from too cold to too hot...and we hit the 90s at our house about a week before Burneyville did. I'm about to decide our temperatures more closely correlate to Gainesville's than to Burneyville's.

I hope (and I don't mean this in an unkind way) winter comes earlier to Grove than it does here because at last that would be the logical thing we expect. Nothing about the weather surprises me, especially this year. Haven't we just about had everything in 2010? Snow, sleet, thundersnow, thundersleet,rain, hail in every possible shape and size, wind storms, ice storms, tornadoes, multiple tornadoes all over the place in the same night...almost at the same time on some days, dust storms in some parts of the state, flash flooding, regular flooding, some winter or spring wildfires that even destroyed homes, earthquakes (not really weather related, I guess), snow in southcentral OK on the first day of spring, July and August temperatures in May and June, heat index numbers esp. north of the Arbuckles that have been some of the highest I've ever seen, very high dew points for weeks, and whatever else lies ahead the rest of the year. Did I forget any weather that we've had? Oh, we're having tropical moisture sent our way by Alex, but at least it didn't bring the strong winds like Erin brought us (and maybe Ike too?) a few years ago.

By the way, there's Invest 95L in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico off Florida's panhandle. I've been watching it all week...even before it was named as an Invest, because some tropical weather models were trying to show it developing into something even before Alex hit Mexico, so many felt it likely Alex would hit and that the area now called Invest 95L would just disappear. It didn't disappear. Invest 95L is an odd little low pressure circulation and the Hurricane Hunter aircraft were scheduled to fly into it today to investigate and see what it is going to do. If Invest 95L develops, some models show it moving towards.....Texas or Louisiana. So, it could be a rainmaker for us here in Oklahoma in a few days, although I cannot imagine it could attain tropical storm or hurricane status since it is forming so close to land. It would be great if it sends us more rain next week though. Now that we've had a little rain, I am greedy and want more.

Dawn

About Cedar Apple Rust, I think my Granny Smith and Fugi caught it. Lot's of cedars in these parts. Too late not to plant apple trees since I wasn't aware of this issue when I bought them.
I do understand there are a couple of varieties that aren't prone to CAR.
Anyways, now that I do have the trees, along with the CAR, I would like to find a benign, organic solution to the problem. I've been reading that plain old baking soda is an excellent fungicide. Some sources said to check this fact out on lawn mushrooms to prove it. Well, it either works or it doesn't.
In any case, I would think one would have to be prepared to be on a spraying schedule, especially after rains.
Jo Ellen, my apple tree leaves look like your's. Pretty sure it is CAR. Darn it!@!! Why can't plants just grow like weeds do? Never seem to have any problem with them.

Barbara

Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Cedar Apple Rust Treatment

Paula,

You get an "A", AND a gold star!

I get a dunce cap and a slap on the hand with a ruler.

I am so thankful for all of the collective experience available to me here.

Jo

Barbara, I also planted apples before I was aware that OK isn't a great apple state.

At any rate, I got them last fall on clearance at Home Depot or Lowes for under $5 each, but I'd love to help them live and produce if possible.

Thanks for the link. I am looking at it right now.

My neighbors (AHEM KELLEY) have a big line of Junipers between us on the property line.

I might go out there tonight with a chainsaw.

JUST KIDDING!

I actually love them and if forced to choose between my sad little apples and the gorgeous full junipers, the Junipers would win every time.

Jo