Carol - I'm convinced my husband loves to do the heavy work! He certainly prefers that rather than me dragging him outside to look at which seeds have germinated early each morning! Granite - Funny dogs, they are lucky we love them so much. One puppy worked out how to climb onto the table yesterday. I looked out the window to see her DIGGING in my 2 day old basil planter box. Luckily I saw it in time and managed to rescue most. Unfortunately I was too late for the tomato plant :( No more plants on the table. Jolly - sorry for intruding on your post, just wanted to say hello!

Floodthelast, last year I used an umbrella to shade some seedlings that were planted in June, during very hot dry sunny weather. This is not good weather for planting or transplanting anything, but can be done with careful watering and shading the plants for a few days. Make sure containers are watered well before planting time - this makes it easier to get the seedlings out and separate the roots. (Since I mostly plant those little babies individually, it really helps.) Seedlings can also benefit from a very dilute balanced liquid fertilizer. I'm strictly organic, so use liquid seaweed, about 1 tablespoon of the seaweed concentrate per gallon of watering can. This also feeds the soil micro-organisms. I've tried fish emulsion, but that attracted raccoons who would dig up the soil looking for the "fish". Seaweed doesn't attract critters. Some people use a diluted compost tea and say this works wonders for seedlings. I dug up an FAQ on this by trudi - Here is a link that might be useful: Fertilizing Seedlings and a Simple Explanation of N-P-K

I am growing in buckets this year, I have used the hanging planters in the past. I have the perfect(my opinion) soil blend for my plants this year, drains great! I have also paid attention to the nutrients aka cow manure, bone meal etc that I use. Miracle grow potting mix is not the best thing to grow your plants in.(my opinion) I think alot of your issues are to do with soil composistion, water retention and shade. Tomatoes need a lot of sun light. Here is a link that might be useful: robs urban farm

Usually when the yellowing begins at the oldest leaves first and works its way up progressively through the older leaves ... and the yellowing is uniform yellowing with no black spots or ringed blotches on the leaves ... that is a sure sign of the plant robbing nitrogen from the older leaves and transferring it to the new growth ... meaning your plants are asking for a nitrogen boost. However, I don't see the "yellowing" ... all I see in your pictures is some off-color, dull khaki colored leaves like in that third picture, then it seems the coloration goes to dry, dead, dark tan or light brown. Also, look at that first picture and the last picture where the discoloration seems to have skipped past some of the older leaves and is well progressed on a some of the foliage in mid-plant. That doesn't seem indicative of typical nitrogen deficiency which would seem to be the first deficiency that would appear if indeed you are flushing or leaching out nutrients by over-watering as N is more unstable and "leachable" than P or K ... and you say you're fertilizing regularly with Miracle Grow. So, I don't really suspect it's lack of application. I'm thinking possibly disease of some sort. I'm not familiar with Miracle Grow plant growing mixes, but I did have trouble this summer with a knock-off brand of the same type stuff from Scotts (which I think is the same company now) where it was just to moisture rententive for the tomato plants I happened to use it for. I thought I had lucked into a good deal when I got a couple of busted bags for half price ... but the plants in that mix withered up similarly to yours, but not exactly the same color or pattern of disorder. But the mix always seemed saturated. My other potted tomatoes never had a problem all summer even though I watered them nearly daily and at the risk of overwatering ... but they were in a very porous homemade mix and never showed the least sign of what we're talking about here. So, I'm really no help with regard to the possibility of over watering. Personally, since your plants are showing that funky off-color on the leaves AND some of the stem tissue ... and since there seems to be some leaf distortion going on there too ... like a little roll while there's still some greenish color left ... you may want to take some examples of leaves to your county extension horticulturalist. If you do, take some healthy leaves, some that are just starting to show the disorder, and other foliage AND some of those discolored stems in various stages of dying and death so she or he has enough evidence to make a determination whether you're dealing with a fungal or bacterialogical agent or some other thing we all may be missing here.