Thanks so much for the info. Sorry it took me a few days to reply, my work schedule has been a little insane... I had thought leaf spot was possible, but the beginning stage of this fungus was like nothing I could find (picture or description) describing Septoria. It looked like a black/brown dust (raised) was covering the undersides of the leaves- like someone held the plant upside-down and spilled soil on it :) If two of you think that's what it is, then it must be. I thought rust both because that was the ONLY fungus that looked even remotely similar and we had rust on a jasmine vine planted about 6 feet away in the flower bed (this tomato is potted so it does not share soil with any plants). The good news is- after an all out assault of (Safer) fungicide (every 4 days) and seaweed- the plant appears to be in recovery. A couple of the young tomatoes appear to be a bit deformed so I'm going to keep a close eye on it. The leaf loss was quite extensive, so I may have a problem with sun scald. (btw, in a couple of the photos you can see the whole plant behind me- it's the potted plant on the white stand). QUESTIONs: If I start using Fish Emulsion with the seaweed now will it encourage some more leaf production to help the sun scald problem? Or will any new leaf growth be effected by the fungus? The plant is potted so I have not grown anything in the soil before, it must have picked up the disease at the nursery. This is my ONLY potted tomato and I'm noticing a few spots on my other tomatoes (planted in a garden), if I catch this fungus early enough will it contaminate the soil? Sorry if it was unclear, all of my plants are outside (I brought my laptop out and used the camera built into it to take the pics- GO MAC!!!) Thanks again for all the posts, diagnosing this little fungus had truly been driving me crazy!

if you planted it less than a month ago.. then its transplant shock... water properly for the rest for the year ... IMHO.. disease simple does not happen that fast.. and we have to presume.. that it came.. disease free from a seller ... as a newb.. let me suggest.. you have had more problems.. and more treatments.. than i have on my 5 acres in 10 years ... as i dont treat anything.. ever .... try to become a little less of a worrier.. and understand.. that a garden is not a disney movie ... you dont have to react to.. and treat every little thing.. and not everything will be picture perfect ... search for knowledge ... but dont react.. unless the plant is threatened .. and thats my wisdom for the day .. good luck ken ps: i would bet.. that transplant shock is increased due to all the brick work.. which retains heat long into the night.. which is usually a cooler recovery time... nothing to do about that.. but water properly ... your plant is hardening off.. to its new location .... pps: its stressed.. not hungry.. feeding it will not help ...

Kelthane is an older miticide that people use. I haven't priced Avid but I know that Cape Cod Violetry sells it in small quantities. It is very expensive but at the recommended use rate of 1/4 teaspoon per gallon, a very small amount will last for many years--like one or two oz. For most indoor growers a pint of mixed spray is all one needs to eliminate an infestation on a multilevel lightstand full of plants (hence, what??--a sixteenth of a teaspoon of Avid!!). The characteristic of cyclamen mites that I have come to recognize on episcias is in the center of the new growth. It turns brown and fuzzy, and the plants stop growing. The stolons show this brown fuzziness too, as it spreads. It takes a month or so for the infestion to get really bad. Then the plants get really bad looking and begin to die. Once when I didn't know what I had, I didn't treat the plants till really late, and yet I saved almost all of them. The episcias recovered by initiating new growth from the stem, as all the growth points on the crown and stolons were quite dead by then. People have tried to see these mites, using magnification and microsctopes and often they can't find anything. Its one of the invisible pests that only shows itself by its pattern of damage. It sounds like you don't have them. In small collections c-mites are pretty rare. It took me many years to finally get them and now its been over two years since the last time. Avid has a distinctive smell that isn't that terrible but is pretty distinctive and can last a long time in a terrarium. Anyway, last summer at the AGGS convention (warning:story) I bought a plant of rare rare Kohleria allenii. As I was carrying it around the plant sale in my box, I noticed that it had quite an odd smell to the foliage. Hmmm, I guessed it was one of those few gessies with aromatic foliage. After I got the plant home, via my carry-on bag on the airplane and about a week later, the odor was gone. Then I realized it must have been sprayed with Avid. I had finally recognized that smell. The very same plant grew on a sunny windowsill and now it is in full bud. I am anxious to see this species in flower for the first time. (PS, several months after I got back from the convention, I discovered I already had a plant of allenii, which had gone dormant and resprouted. So, now I have two, but the show differences in foliage so I shall see if I have two seedlings as I suspect or if one is mislabeled. Yes, Johnnie B. at least one of these is from you ;))) Jon

Hello Hamiltongardener, Thank you for taking the time to look up info for me! The lake is pretty clean and is always being tested. It is pretty normal for the geese to eat other than it's aquatic foods. People with grass have avery hard time here because they love to eat grass. That is why they usually hang around golf courses. I do not have grass, so I never really had them coming up on my yard before except to maybe cross my yard to get to someone elses grass. BUt I have been here for 2 gardening seasons now and they never bothered the garden, but I only had my tomatoes,peppers,pumpkins,squash and herbs. Like I said, the seem to like all the leafy veggies, because when this happened this year, they left the pumpkins alone. So I was hoping that they would not like the tomato plants, also because they have a strong oder to them. I thought I heard once that tomato plant leaves were posionous to some animals? I can always give in and get a goose repellent to make a barrier, but I really would like to avoid that so not to pollute my lake. So confused! Christy