I'd think about environmental stress. Life in a container is challenging at best.

Would need to know what mix (potting mix or soil) they're in; watering and how you decide when & how much; fertilizing - ditto.

Any chance of posting pictures of entire plants? Doing so cn help us sort out possible deficiencies.

i can definitely take pictures of whole plants - though you'd see that from a distance, they look great. except for the brandywine, which is the one in pic #2. the whole plant is a couple shades paler than all the rest, and the browning on the leaves is getting worse since i took the pictures a couple days ago.

they are in e.b. stone "edna's best" organic potting soil. also some tomato tone fertilizer and worm castings in the hole when i planted them in. nothing since then (that was about a month ago). all plants have had blossoms for a couple weeks, no fruit yet.

i water by hand, when soil feels dry a couple inches down.

ok - here are some more photos, of mostly entire plants.

and here's the brandywine that has the worsening brown spotting:

sad yellow paul robeson:

yellowing at the bottom (like in picture #4 from my first post):

and a weird leaf curl with a ridge in the middle:

none of these things even look like the same problem to me.. :(

help!?

"none of these things even look like the same problem to me.."

Well, they are all stressed in some way or another. Two of the leaves in the pictures (the ones with the burnt edges) seem to be indicating fertilizer burn. The more sickly yellow looking potato-leafed plant appears as if it's getting too much water, but it could also be a nutrient deficiency. The last picture you posted is physiological leaf roll... Just means the plant is stressed in some way - not a huge deal in itself.

You may have some pests in the mix, but I couldn't see any in the pictures.

Before we go any further though, please tell us your watering and fertilizing regime. What medium are they planted in? What are the daytime / nighttime temps like?

Answering those questions will get us a lot closer to the understanding the cause.

thanks for the reply. quoted from my previous reply,
>they are in e.b. stone "edna's best" organic potting soil. also some tomato tone fertilizer and worm castings in the hole when i planted them in. nothing since then (that was about a month ago). all plants have had blossoms for a couple weeks, no fruit yet.

>i water by hand, when soil feels dry a couple inches down."

re: temps - it's been in the neighborhood of 65-70 during the day and high 50's at night for the past week at least. before that...much the same, maybe a few days here and there of much warmer daytime weather.

fertilizer burn would surprise me as i haven't fertilized except for a handful of tomato tone in the hole when planting, and they've been out around 6 weeks. i've been watering maybe twice a week, depending on how warm it is & how dry the soil feels.

Those don't look like 10-15 gallon containers and some look rather small for tomato plants. I know looks can be deceiving in photos though.
The second photo in this thread looks like fungus to me.
Fertilizer burn can happen anytime the roots are next to a concentrated amount of fertilizer which often happens when it's not mixed well with the soil.

"fertilizer burn would surprise me as i haven't fertilized except for a handful of tomato tone in the hole when planting"

Was it mixed in well or just placed in the hole? To what Taz said, if they hit a patch of pure fertilizer it could burn them. The reason I suggested fertilizer burn for the 3rd and 4th pictures from your first post is that I don't see any rings or spots indicating a fungal attack and the burnt edges are very common on plants suffering from fertilizer burn.

thanks for weighing in...

the black containers are all 10 gallons. the plants are about 4 feet tall. definitely doesn't look taht way in the pictures for some reason!

now most of the plants are showing some sort of leaf roll, and some of the blossoms are dropping off. but maybe it's nothing. argh! :)