My wonderful husband spent most of the day Saturday and Sunday building me tall, sturdy, permanent trellises on my raised beds for my tomatoes, cucumbers, tomatillos. To make them sturdier, he added cross braces on the top - connecting the trellises to each other. Reading your post, it makes me think how easy it would be to put some netting over it! But more importantly, I think I now know how to make a netted enclosure for my blueberry bushes. I've wanted more blueberry bushes, yet I want the blueberries for myself, not for the birds!

My first thought looking at the leaves of your tomatoes was that they needed watering, or maybe they have been overwatered. Do you check the moisture of the growing medium 3-5 inches below the surface? Watering in a container is much different from watering a plant in the ground. Do you have one of those saucers that usually go with that kind of pot? If so when you water your plant, wait about 30 minutes and then drain that saucer. If you leave water standing in it, you are depriving the tomatoes of air for the roots and they will drown. GardenWebber sprouts_honor (Jennifer from Cleveland) had a wonderful suggestion on how to tell whether or not you need to water your tomatoes, and I quote here: "Get a wooden dowel rod (or two) and sink it in the ground near a plant or two and leave it. Pull it out when you think you need to water. If the top is dry and the bottom is a little damp, it's time to water. If it looks dark and feels saturated, wait to water. I use this technique with potted plants that don't like being over watered and it's helpful with in ground plants too." Also when you water a plant in a container, the process tends to wash away the nutrients in the growing medium so they will need to be fed frequently. Many container growers use a water soluble balanced fertilizer such as 8-8-8 or 10-10-10, diluted to 1/3 or 1/4 recommended label strength and use it to water every 10 days to two weeks. Good luck with your tomatoes. Betsy

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.

I appreciate all the concern! In fact I did test my well water. It came out fine. I live essentially at the top of the watershed for a large portion of the western US. While not immune to problems I would bet my well water is many times cleaner/healthier than what the majority of the US gets in their municipal tap. Keep in mind aruzinsky that a modern water wall is a closed unit and very far underground, pulling water filtered through many layers of rock and sand. It is not a well like Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water! Suzi I also use the potassium chloride instead of salt now. Seems healthier all around. I will add that my poor neglected house plants all look fine and they have been watered solely with the softened water. But perhaps they are more resilient than a little seedling. I agree it is important to figure out what's killing them but mostly for my sanity! I don't have time to waste with entire flats dying for no known reason. The 6 bulb t-5 lamps do generate a fair amount of heat, I am wondering if that could have anything to do with it. I thought tomatoes could take a decent amount of heat though.