I disagree... herbicide damage rarely causes spots on the leaves, and the yellowing tends to be a general overall thing (especially on the growing tips), not mottled. It's always easier to figure out with a picture, but a virus is possible. TMV is, indeed, almost nonexistent outside of labs in the US. Cucumber Mosaic Virus, on the other hand, is out there, and may be more common than you think (many Heavenly Bamboo plants carry it; the resulting red color is considered desirable). There is also Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus, which is rampant in many parts of the country. Both CMV and TSWV are vectored by insects; they are the major viruses we usually run into in tomato plants. They can strike individual plants, leaving neighbors alone. If you're dealing with an herbicide, the effects will show up on neighboring plants which are close to each other and sharing the bed, or different species of plants that share the same soil/exposure, like squash or peppers (but not necessarily every kind of vegetable). The plants might pull out of a light exposure once the source of herbicide is removed; the best sign is when they start to grow again. Badly herbicide-damaged or virus-infected plants will stop growing or slow to a crawl, and will never start again. Am I stuck with never using this soil for tomatoes again? No. Any virus you are likely to encounter in tomatoes doesn't persist in the soil. If your soil is contaminated with herbicide (and I can't imagine how you would manage that with Mel's Mix, unless the compost part was badly contaminated) then you will have to get rid of it, but not if the herbicide drifted over from elsewhere. How badly will my harvest suffer? Virus-infected plants will not bear, or will bear misshapen and often bad-tasting fruit. Since you're not likely to get any good fruit out of these plants once the virus is well established, you'll have fewer plants to harvest from. If herbicide-damaged plants recover, they will be set back by at least a few weeks, but the fruit you get after that should be fine. Is moving the plants to a different part of my back yard sufficient, or do I need to destroy them? If it's a virus, you need to pull them. CMV and TSWV are transmitted by insects which can fly, and infected plants can serve as a reservoir for insects to infect your currently healthy plants. (Besides, they won't fruit well, so why keep them?) If it's herbicide damage... well, if the soil isn't the problem, and there's no new drift from elsewhere, then there's no real point to moving them. Either they'll pull out or they won't. How likely is it that all my tomato plants are infected? I have around a dozen plants and hate to think that I need to destroy them all. I've gotten a few virus-infected plants over the years; once I confirm that it's a virus rather than some quirk of weather or genetics, I pull the (usually single) plant and look for the same symptoms on other plants. Out of three years I've had a virus problem, I've had to pull four plants total, and I grow over 15 plants a year. So keep your eyes peeled, and if you're lucky, it might turn out to be just a couple. They're all growing well. Now this is what confuses me. Is it just the normal-looking plants that are growing well? If so, cross your fingers and leave them be. If the shoestring-leaf ferny plants are also growing "well", as in vigorous and putting out lots of new growth, digdirt may be onto something with his herbicide theory. Here's a few pics to help out: Cucumber Mosaic Virus Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus --Alison

Can you provide any photos of the critters you are seeing on your peppers? Fungus gnat larvae live in moist soil with a high percentage of organic matter. They feed on roots, generally not to the point where they cause significant damage but do not crawl around on plant parts. They won't emerge from the soil until they become adults. If you do indeed have fungus gnats, there are a lot of much easier and safer ways to control them than using a nicotine tea. In fact, you run a serious risk of infecting your peppers with TMV if you use it - ALL plants in that family (Solanaceae) are quite susceptible (tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos eggplants, etc.) as well as more from 9 other plant families for a total of about 350 different plant species. The virus is very stable and can remain active even in dried or processed tobacco products. This is why you will see 'No Smoking" signs in every commercial greenhouse - not because of human health hazards (although I'm sure that is a consideration) but because of the risk of losing a crop and the financial investment that represents to the grower. I know of greenhouse workers that were fired for smoking on the job, just for this reason!! Fungus gnats lay their eggs in moist soils so keeping things on the drier side will help considerably. You can also top each pot with a layer of coarse sand. The adult gnats won't lay their eggs on the sand as they perceive it to be an inhospitable environment for their young. You can trap the adults with vinegar or beer traps and bait for the larvae by covering the top of your post with thin slices of potato. Leave in place overnight and then discard and replace with fresh. And don't be grossed out by what you find on the reverse side of the potatoes in the morning :-)) But the best thing you can do is get those peppers outdoors and into the ground ASAP. Fungus gnats are not known to be a problem in plants grown outside in garden soil. But this is assuming that fungus gnats are the problem in the first place and I am not convinced they are. Photos are really necessary to determine exactly what's going on.

The ONLY way to know if it's tmv is through testing. Viruses can evolve into different strains within hours, let alone over years. There are many mosaics out there and only a few names to categorize them. I only skimmed the posts, but it seems there is disinformation here concerning the level of tmv occurrence. Mosaic viruses are very common. They will continue to be very common. Plants that evolve a defense and are unnaturally selected for this property will only stay that way for the amount of time that the virus fails to evolve. Despite what some seed companies lead us to believe, what was resistant 5 years ago is likely not so resistant this year. It's not a loss of resistance, but an evolution of the virus just as all viruses do in all walks (or rootings) of life. That's why we don't have virus cures for humans, animals, or plants. Only vaccines. Mosaic viruses are very common and there is no cure. I had a mosaic virus on my tomato plants. All of them that were infected were from a very reputable company, Territorial. I also planted some from Ferry Morse and none were infected or became infected later. Does that mean that all of the Territorial seeds were infected as seeds? No, of course not. It means that the Ferry Morse plants had a resistance to the particular strain of evolved virus that hit my plants while the Territorial plants didn't have as good of resistance. I called Territorial, though, as a courtesy to let them know that I had this virus and that just in case it was a seedborne issue they would be aware. But, I do know that virus transmission is natural and a company can only control the issue when informed. Territorial is in Oregon while I am in Indiana. The strain of virus I got is likely not in Oregon and thus the reduced resistance. Also keep in mind that resistance doesn't mean virus free. The Ferry Morse may very well have had the disease. They just weren't affected. Many living things have viruses and never show symptoms, including humans, but can transmit the virus to a less resistant variety resulting in fatal symptoms. By the way, even though the fault did not lie with Territorial, they sent me seeds of a different variety to replace my other seeds without me asking for them. I thought that was very kind of them. I will continue buying my seeds from them. I know it's been 3 years since the last post on this thread, but in case anyone else runs into this I thought I'd share.

Carolyn: what is cmv? I've heard you mention it but not sure what it is. Do you think leaves look like CMV? **** Tammy, CMV is Cucumber Mosaic Virus and as I said above the symptoms are very similar to TMV and CMV infects tomatoes and has many more host plants. No, your plants don't have CMV either. I've linked below to a good diagnosis site for tomatoes and you might want to take a look. Two important points. First, pictures are static while disease is progressive so not always can one use pictures to make a definitive diagnosis, but I'd say most of the time you can. Second, all such sites list almost all possible pathogens and while the common Foliage pathogens are found everywhere the systemic diseases such as TMV, CMV, Fusariun, Verticillium, etc., are not always found in all areas of the country. So you have to know what's even possible in your own area before considering a pathogen as a possibility. Carolyn Here is a link that might be useful: Tx A and M tomato diagnosis