Hi Ryan, Laughing at the seed thing. That's how I got started. "Just one more" was my motto. Next thing you know I wanted to try everything; they all sounded so good. :-) Before we start thinking about diseases, it would help to know what kind of soil you're using and how you are fertilizing the plants. The biggest thing is not to overwater tomato plants. That's the most common mistake everyone makes. Let them dry out between watering. Before you water, stick your finger down into the soil. If it's still feels a couple of inches down, don't water, even if it feels dry at the top of the pot. Tomatoes hate soggy soil and they hate to have soggy roots, so make sure your containers are draining well, that they aren't sitting in water, and that you don't use the hose or watering can too often. Are you planning to grow the plants in containers or are you eventually going to move them into the ground somewhere? If you're going to keep them in containers you will need much larger containers eventually. At least 5 gallon containers. For best results I would use 10 or 15 gallon containers. Anything smaller will reduce yield and cause the plants to get root bound. Fertilizing: they will need to be fertilized regularly if you're growing in containers. Most potting soils have very few to no nutrients. Get an all purpose fertilizer that has immediately-available nutrients, such as a water soluble one like Miracle Gro or Peters or whatever one you like. Try to keep the NPK numbers close to equal, so use 10-10-10 or 15-15-15 or 20-20-20. You can go lower on the first number if you like so, for example, 5-10-10 or 5-10-7 would be fine. Anyhow, dilute according to package directions for indoor plant feedings. Using the formula for outdoor plants will be too strong for potted/container plants and will cause leaf burn and the plants will look sickly. Feed every couple of weeks or so. No more than that is necessary. Keep the herbicides away. Roundup and/or 2,4-D that is accidentally sprayed on the plants will make them sick and likely kill them eventually. 2,4-D that is in soil or manure can also do damage to them. The plants will look virused, with spindly, twisted, distorted leaves. You have pests and diseases that we don't get see up here, so I would not be acquainted with all of them. Someone else can chime in. Still, I would risk those pests and diseases to live where you are, especially in the winter. :-) The leaves on your plants look a little rugose (puckered) and curled. That could be from overwatering or underfeeding or cold weather (not a problem for you right now, lol), sometimes insects like mites will cause that kind of damage. I don't think we need to be thinking about diseases right now. If we had to, I'd suspect a virus type of disease because the foliage looks pretty clean. Again, at this point I'd suspect something environmental such as too much water.

Leaf curling alone is a physiological condition caused by stress; it's common in stressed plants, including young plants which don't have the root system to support all their foliage yet, or in times of unusually bright sunlight. If you get it by itself, look to see what may have stressed the plant recently; often it's nothing to worry about. The wilting, dead green leaves symptom resembles bacterial wilt, but that's pretty rare in your neck of the woods, and tends to take the whole plant down very rapidly. Stem borers can sometimes do it; look for little holes in the affected stems. Look for any damage to the stem, in fact. With the yellowing and necrosis -- it's hard to see in that small a photo, but it looks like the dark lesions are following the veins. That's diagnostic of a toxin of some kind -- no virus I know of does that in tomato, no bacterium or fungus is that specific, and no deficiency kills the veins before the interveinal spaces. I've seen a symptom almost identical to that in a case of alcohol poisoning (someone had a cocktail party in a library foyer and apparently the drinks weren't very good, as the potted plants looked pretty rough afterward). It was an unusual enough symptom that it became a teaching example. Toxins can come from outside or from the soil. Pyola is perfectly safe for tomatoes, and the heat wasn't excessive, but make sure the dilution was correct, as too high a concentration can burn leaves much like that. Spray damage can also cause wilted and dead green leaves. If you can sacrifice a plant that's badly affected, dig it up to look at the roots, see whether it has lots of crisp, white, fine roots, not dark or knobby ones. Shave away the skin at the soil line to look for discolorations in the woody stem underneath; cut open wilted green shoots to check for hollow centers from stem borers; and finally split open the main stem to see whether it's hollow or discolored inside. I don't expect much except maybe root symptoms, but you really never know. My personal guess is soil toxicity, especially given that the lower and terminal leaves are the worst affected by the yellowing and dying, and some things take a while to build up in the leaves enough to kill them. One important thing to note is that not all toxins are synthetic chemicals -- an excess of certain minerals or nutrients can poison a plant. pH affects root uptake of anything enormously, especially minerals, but it can have its own effect as well. You may need a soil test -- call your Agriculture Department, Cooperative Extension, or U of O to find an affordable lab. I don't see your symptoms in any of the common nutrient toxicity listings, though, which means it could be something chemical, and there is no general panel for that. Down here in California I'd send it to Sacramento's Plant Diagnostics lab or the extension pathologist at U. C. Davis, but I don't know what pathologists you have at your disposal. This is certainly not a cut-and-dried common disease problem, and even a specialist is going to need some lab work to figure it out, I suspect. I wish I had more answers for you, sorry. --Alison

Here are pics: http://photobucket.com/tomatoproblems

Thank you everyone for your thoughts!! I immediately put some of your advice into action and things are getting better. I wish I could reply to all of your messages individually, but it seems like the forum doesn't have that function(?) so I am including everyone here: edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, SE GA: I'll check out the Daconil, thank you for the recommendation! To answer your questions - yes, it is only one plant, about 3 months old, and I repotted it from a 6" pot I started it in as a seedling to a 12" pot a few weeks ago - it had a nice little growth spurt after that! I planned to keep it indoors. I'm attaching a new pic to the bottom of this thread - it's coming along a little better now, thank you! daninthedirt (USDA 8a, HZ10, Cent TX, Sunset z30): Thanks for keeping me straight on the Neem! I wasn't sure if that was the right thing to do, but now I know. I'll be careful about overwatering too - right now I'm watering every morning if the soil feels dry, I'll skip a day if it seems like it still has moisture left. The pot has a drainage hole and pan too (although I never water it to the point where it floods out the bottom), and I put some rocks in the bottom of the pot, but I'm all ears if you think something else would help. To answer your statement about the fertilizer - the potting mix I purchased came pre-loaded with fish/guano/castings/etc, but I also have fish emulsion on-hand for when it needs a re-up. I'll look up a feeding schedule to be sure. Thank you for your guidance! lgteacher: Thanks for the tip about the master gardener program! I looked into it - I have an extension office in my county so I'll definitely check it out! floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK: I appreciate the brutal honesty, thank you! I've been wondering the same thing - it has been struggling ever since I got it, it's just so hard to end the poor thing - I may give it a few more weeks but I will prepare myself for the worst, haha, I agree that starting over could be best. Thank you for the advice! edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, SE GA: Thank you! Does OP = open pollination? I didn't realize that could have such a quick effect, but I will do some research to try to learn more. Thank you for the advice! Current pic - not looking the best, but possibly better than before?