Can you post a good picture of your symptoms. That would help us to determine whats going on with your plants. Doesnt sound good though. There are a number of things it could be. But on a positeve note, hopefully you are talking about the older leaves that are now in the shade, and closest to the ground. If thats the case just cut those leaves off. But at this piont im not quite ready to give you a diagnosis until we have good a photo. As they say "a picture is worth a thousand words".

Best of luck!

Corey

Yes, they are primarily older leaves near the ground - I've pruned off the lower branches in the past as a preventitive measure.

The photos were in the original post - here they are again:

Hmmm... Acid rain...? Do you use a spray of any kind? The mix hay be on the harsh side. If not, Im sad to say it really looks viral... Do some research, run a list of tomato disease in wiki, then do a google image search on each one. Time consuming I know but just may save your tomaters, and in the process make you the expert in the disease spectrum of this forum!

Good Luck

Corey

Ok I did a little more research, and drumroll please.......

Tomato pinworm.

Notice the partially eaten leaves that just happen to be the older ones, it appears that those have come victum to the parasitic jaws of the tomato pinworm.

Tomato pinworm is becoming a more common pest in home gardens in the mid-Atlantic area. This pest overwinters as a pupa in soil or plant residues. Mated adults lay eggs on the undersides of tomato leaves. The young larvae feed between leaf surfaces creating serpentine and blotchy mines. Leaves are often folded over by pinworm webs. Larvae then make very small pinholes in fruit and feed inside causing fruits to rot. (frass and hole)

Management: Cultivate soil lightly in the fall or prior to planting. Remove mined leaves when feeding injury becomes noticeable. Quickly use infested fruits (at your own risk). Remove and discard all plant residues at the end of the season.

Corey

Sorry but it just looks like plain old tomato leaf roll coupled with a little micro-nutrient deficiency to me. What have you been feeding them and how often? Did you use Mel's mix in the beds or dirt? It is difficult to get any viral disease from Mel's mix unless you got infected compost.

Tomato leaf roll is just a physiological response of the plant to stress of some kind - heat, pruning, excessive or inconsistent soil moisture (common in sq. foot beds), etc. You'll find many discussions here about it if you search 'leaf roll' and 'leaf curl' (I linked some of them below). In the long run it doesn't harm the plant or production but it does help to ID the streeor and eliminate it.

As to the micro-nutrients that can cause the leaf appearance - again a common problem in sq. foot because they drain out so rapidly - a good dose of epsom salts, kelp or seaweed. fish oil emulsion, etc. will usually eliminate the problem if your fertilizer doesn't include micros.

Hope this helps. ;)

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Leaf Roll

Thanks for the follow-up, everyone. Actually, the leaves that appear to be eaten belong to an ill-conceived dwarf sunflower (which despite being eaten and the shade from the toms nonetheless managed to bloom). There's relatively little tomato leaf eating going on, although I did just catch my first hornworm caterpillar - the kids are keeping it in a jar and feeding it random tomato leaves for now (I suspect it will meet an untimely death if it actually manages to get to the moth stage...).

I've looked at the various leaf curl threads - I agree it's likely that. I use straight-up Mel's Mix (1/3 mixed compost) with some 14-14-14 CRF thrown in at mixing time for good measure. I've given the plants probably three MG feedings but have come to the conclusion that I need to move away from high-nitrogen ferts for tomoatoes. I've just gotten an organic fish/kelp fertilizer and will use that instead (it's 2-5-1) and will probably alternate that with MG Tomato (18-18-21). Other than the micro-nutes from MG I haven't added anything else. Interesting observation about Mel's Mix draining too fast but somewhat hard to act on. I've been pruning down to one vine, so that could be a stress factor as well.

I've also sprayed with Serenade thinking I had something more serious.

Thanks again for the feedback - any other insights would be very welcome.

Interesting observation about Mel's Mix draining too fast but somewhat hard to act on.

Hi Mark - it isn't that the mix itself drains too rapidly, although it does drain better than most garden dirt, but that the nutrients will wash out of it more rapidly than they will out of garden dirt. Refreshing the compost helps - just use it like mulch around the plants - as it will retain and supply nutrients longer and in a more consistent fashion. Helps stabilize the moisture levels too.

I have better luck using a diluted 1/2 strength feeding every week to 10 days rather than a full strength feeding less often. JMO

Dave