Can you post a larger image? The dramatic lights & shadows, plus the small image size, make it difficult to see detail.

Hi! I'm so sorry, Jean001a, I haven't replied sooner but i have been away (got the neighbor to look after the garden :). Thank you for you response. I had used miracle grow organic all purpose plant food NPK: 7-6-7 when i transplanted the plants to their grow bags. (i don't know what it is made up of though). Luckily it seems as though they have recovered. the leaves are mostly green. However, i think that the fertilizer had too much nitrogen as the plants are now 1m tall and are only just starting to set their first trusses of flowers.

First of all, yellowing and brown spots on the leaves of tomato plants can be a sign of different types of diseases, such as early blight, late blight, or septoria leaf spot. These diseases are usually caused by fungi that thrive in warm, humid environments and can spread rapidly in crowded, humid conditions. Based on your description, your tomato plants may be experiencing some type of fungal disease. Brown spots on the leaves, along with the white residue you mentioned, are common signs of fungal infection. Additionally, the presence of fruit flies on plants could also indicate fungal growth, as fruit flies are attracted to the sweet odor produced by fungi. To address the problem, it is important to take some steps to prevent further spread of the disease. First, you should remove all infected leaves and dispose of them in the trash, rather than composting them. This will prevent the spores from spreading to other plants. You may also consider applying a fungicide spray to the remaining leaves, especially if you see new spots appearing. As for leaf yellowing, this could be due to a variety of factors, including nutrient deficiencies, overwatering, or pests. You mentioned that your soil was low in nitrogen and phosphate, so applying organic fertilizer was a good next step. However, it can take a while for the plants to recover, as the yellowing can be the result of previous stressors. As for fruit flies, you may want to try some natural remedies, such as using sticky traps or applying a dish soap and water solution to the floor. These methods can help reduce the number of flies without the use of harmful chemicals. Finally, since you mentioned that you are a novice tomato gardener, it's always a good idea to do some research and educate yourself on common problems tomato plants can face. I would recommend visiting a website like https://thegardenplants.com/pests-diseases/leaf-problems/, which from what I've seen has quite a bit of information on leaf problems on various types of plants, although I don't think there is an article on tomatoes many of the solutions for these problems are useful regardless of the plant in question. I hope this information is useful to you and good luck with your tomato plants!

I honestly try very hard NOT to be overparanoid about things like this. I do not ever use anything in my garden except for homemade compost. I don't even add things to my soil as most gardeners do. I am also the person who uses steam to clean her house instead of chemicals when at all possible. I also figure though that for the times I do need to buy things in the stores, like right now when my garden is being moved and my canned goods are running out, I have little control over what they have done to the plants they grew my food on and they probably did WAY worse than a little copper fungicide. I don't have pets, but I do have a now 3 and 4 year old. Last year when they were 2 and 3 I didn't let them in the garden for the day I sprayed , but after that I let them back in. BUT, my kids also don't munch on leaves (well not of the tomato plants anyway) so I am not sure how I would feel about that. I am not sure what your plan for next year is, but I did my research before deciding to move my garden for other reasons. I was going to do solar sterilization. You will obviously need to do something otherwise you will have the same issue next year that you have this year. I will add a link below to solar sterilization. I haven't tried it, but with my tomatoes dying off early I figured I had enough time to cut my losses cover the garden up and bake the soil if I needed to get it ready for this year. I would be curious if anyone on GW has tried it. Here is a link that might be useful: Soil solarization