I've been feeding them with compost tea when I water twice each day. Like most tap water, mine has a a fairly high pH, so minerals may not be as available to the plants as they should be. I try to avoid all toxic stuff, but I do use non-organic fertilizers when my compost for tea is either used up or washed out. I mainly compost maple tree leaves and grass clippings that I bag with the mower each fall. I gave the plants dose of Epson salts and bought a small package of Miracid fertilizer with trace elements. I'm going to try adding a small bit of this each day with their water to lower the pH and supplement their feed now that I am running out of compost that is not already washed out. The rate of leaves dying has slowed down a bit, so it looks like the plant might survive to give me a fall crop after the weather cools down a bit. I am not sure if the improvement is because our temp for the past week has finally dropped from over 100 to the high 80s. It may also be that the sick leaves are the left over ones from before I got rid of the last few aphids and mites. I cannot find a single aphid or mite anymore. It cannot tell for sure which growth on the plant as emerged since the final bugs were beaten. I did take some of the leaves and hold them up to a flash light last night to see if there were any pin-holes. The leaves that have any yellow all seem to have some tiny holes that light would shine through, but the newer mature leaves do not have any holes or yellow. Thank you for the suggestion regarding the magnesium. Between the Epson Salts, more balanced pH, lower temp, and beneficial bugs, I hope somethings works. If I can get this problem with leave drop fixed, I think I can get a good fall crop. The plant's basic stems and roots seem to still be very healthy and there is enough new growth with leaves to still produce a good crop once our night temps drop back below 70 so my blooms will set fruit. Knoxville is near the mountains, but down in river valley, so our cool fall temps are moderated. Last year, I was able to cover my plants with a sheet at night for the first 3 or 4 frosts, and then we got a warm spell without more frost until mid November. After I gave up and picked the green fruit before our first really cold night, I had ripe tomatoes until nearly Christmas. Between tress and my 4 dogs which love to dig, I had a hard time finding a good place to grow a couple of tomato plants, so I've grown 2 or 3 in pots for the past few years. I read about the Topsy-Turvey tomato planters that a local man had invented, so I decided to try the idea 2 years ago. For anyone that wants to grow tomatoes next year in a container, I recommend the idea highly. I don't have to stake them and the plants are clean and dry up off the ground. I'm disabled and living on social security, so I try to make do with things I can scavenge whenever possible. For my planters, I use a 5 or 10 gallon bucket. I tied a strong nylon rope around the top of the buckets, because I did not trust the handles to be strong enough to support both the bucket's contents and the plant's growth. I drilled a 2 inch hole in the center of the bottom of the buckets. When I transplant my seedlings, I sit the bucket right-side-up on the edge of a table with part hanging over the edge so I can get to the hole in the bottom. I slide the plant's roots up from the bottom through the hole in the bucket and then wedged soft sponge-like foam around the plant's stem to keep it from falling out and keep the dirt from running out when I add it next. After the tomato plant is in the hole with its foam collar, I reach in the top of the bucket and pull the plant's roots and stem up into the bucket until only the top stems and leaves of the plant are hanging out of the bottom of the bucket. I then add enough dirt to hold the plant in position. Pause before adding so much dirt that the bucket gets too heavy to lift up to hang. Warning, this thing will get heavy, so a simple cup hook screwed into the overhang will not be enough to hold it once you get it full of dirt, watered, with several feet of foliage. While it is somewhat clumsy to put together, if you have a place to hang it that gets lots of sun, it works great. I was lucky in that someone in the past had already put up a mounting for a swing on the porch. The porch is so sunny, it lends itself better for container gardening than it does for a porch swing, so I use the heavy hooks intended for a porch swing with two adults, to instead support large hanging tomato plants. After I have the pots hanging, I then finish filling the buckets with a mixture of compost and potting mix. I use fresh potting mix each year and wash the buckets with bleach each spring to avoid soil borne diseases and pests from the prior year. In full sun and heat, I water the plants each morning and afternoon. As the stems grow, they will tend to curve back upward in graceful "swooping" arcs that almost hide the bucket they are growing in. Once the plants are heavy with full-sized fruit they will hang more straight, so try to put the pot as high as you can, and still be able to reach up to water it from the top. Cherry tomatoes plants make a very beautiful hanging plant when grown this way. The graceful arcs of lush green leaves are accented so well by the clusters of ripe fruit, you would be tempted to leave then on the plant for decoration, if they weren't so tasty. They are so good, that many of them never even make it inside the house, because I cannot resist picking a few to eat fresh from the vine, every time I go outside and walk past them. While they don't produce bragging sized fruit, I always plant a cherry tomato plant because they are so predictably productive. For me, they always seem to be the most disease and pest resistant and best at continuing to set fruit during the hot summer. Greg

As Carolyn and others often point out here, TMV (tobacco mosaic virus) hasn't been a problem in the US for decades because all the tobacco grown here has built in GM resistance to it. More details on it available in the prior discussions that i can't recall off-hand. CMV cucumber mosaic virus commonly exists but not TMV. I can't see any bulls-eyes in your pics either but the odds and the weather this time of year do favor Early Blight so I would still be inclined to go with a fungicide spay - can't hurt and could stop it. If it is a virus then all you could do would be to pitch the plants anyway so you might as well try the fungicide first. At the same time I'd keep monitoring the plants for any further symptoms that might firm up a diagnosis. Sorry can't be of more help. Dave

I'm seeing a couple of small spots there, but the uniform yellowing is not fungal blight (either "early" or "late"). I wouldn't expect overwatering if you're only watering 2-3 times per week, but you might check the soil to see whether it's soggy a few inches down. Or dry, though the most common sign of underwatering is wilting shoot tips. This sort of thing is normal for a few leaves near the bottom, as they get shaded out and drop off naturally. More than the bottom quarter, I start to wonder what's wrong... if the top is growing vigorously, it's not a nitrogen deficiency. The next thing to consider is Fusarium wilt, especially if it's affecting one side or one branch of the plant rather than the whole thing at once. F wilt can cause that clear yellow color on bottom leaves, then march up the plant, and you're in a nice warm climate for it. If it is Fusarium (more than a quarter of the plant doing this, the top is actively growing, and the soil moisture is okay)... unfortunately, there's no cure, and few solutions other than choosing more resistant varieties or growing in containers. Sometimes healthy plants will cope with it, but it tends to slow down growth on even the best, and weaker plants can die of it. Hope that helps somewhat. --Alison

I think we can always express our opinions and respect others too. As mentioned before, simply being "organic" does not mean safe to humans and the environment. For example petroleum products are organic among others. Then, where does the "organic" material come from ? There was a time that there were no living organisms on the face of Earth. So the source and origin of "Organic" mater is "inorganic matter". There are also naturally occurring "inorganic" matter vs synthesized by us, humans. Not all "naturally occurring" matter is safe and not all synthesized ones are unsafe. Most of medicine are synthesized without which some of us would have been dead some time ago. In my opinion, speaking against "man - synthesized/ manufactured" things is knocking our own intelligence and scientific achievements. We owe it to our bigger brain. On The Topic: I just sprayed all my tomatoes, peppers, cukes .. with Daconil yesterday. In my mind, I am neither worried about its ill effects on me and my family, nor I feel guilty about harming the environment by using it. I also have NEEM OIL spray and use it to. I feel the same way about using synthetic fertilizers as I use them along with all kinds of manures and organic matter. Organic Purists: I have a great respect for them. Their life style and philosophy, concern for the environment is admirable.