Hi everyone! This is my first year growing tomatoes in the ground, and am having some trouble with them. We have 4 plants only (wanted to start small), 2 of 2 different varieties. I've been searching and researching already the Problem Solver and other websites through google, and still IÂm unable to identify with certainty what's going on. Case One: one of the plants started to show brown spots on one side, mostly on bottom leaves. Here is a small piece, pictured: Underside: Top: Left the main stem in the ground with two apparently healthy suckers on it, and disposed of the rest of the plant. ------ The other variety, started also to show very once in a while some very light brown colored spots, but these are getting more and more yellow, especially on the nerves of the leaves. They are starting to look like variegated tomato plants: The past week, we've had too much rain. The tomatoes are under a summer raw cover fabric, but it becomes wet and allows humidity to go through. I have a chlorothalonil based fungicide, which I would be decided to use, in case of need. I'll highly appreciate your opinions. Thank you so much in advance! Carol

it is in a container. I said I spray regularly because I had flies that came regularly to invade the plant.I have tomato dust, Yates prytherum spray and a Eco oil botanic oil that is to be diluted with water. I dont use them all at once only when i see flies I live in Adelaide. Its just started Spring here and for the last week it was raining and extremely windy like crazy and thats also the reason why the stem got blown off and broken. but the wheather is now sunny and warm like spring. I checked the humidity yesterday I think its been around 80-90% these days. I have been growing this plant for almost 1 and a half years now. I didnt know how to care and in first half year of planting it almost died on me because i didnt drain out water and didnt feed much fertiliser and the soil was always wet almost drowned it. I did have fly pests problems before but its now getting better (only a few will come around, so i dont think this condition is caused by the flies). For the past half year its been healthy and green but now is getting sick. I did some research and now I keep it well drained by putting a pot feet, regular tomato fertiliser (to increase nitrogen as I didnt feed much anything before). seaweed solution just added yesterday. I fertilise every 10-14 days. I water when the soil down 5 cm is dry to touch. Water til water comes out of drainage hole. For the stem, I guess I have to cut it off, the leaves now looking very curly. Can I use it to clone another plant??? My current plant stem is not straight i guess the seeds were crowded and no space when i first put them.. Thank you for reading this long reply. I just cant figure out what is the disease causing this problem. Susan Here is a link that might be useful:

The blueing/dark color on the leaves indicate to me that the plants are not getting/uptaking nutrients adequately . In my opinion 9C (=48F) was not and is not cold for tomato plants PROVDED you hardened them off , for several days, prior to planting. The second issue is the soil temperatures. In order for the plants to be able to uptake nutrients, a minimum soil temperature is required . 50 -55F ? ( = 12 C) should be ok. Again, in the hardening off process the roots also are introduced to cool temperatures gradually, so when they are placed in cool soil ( 10 -12C) they won't get a shock.. MY Recent Experience: On 4/8, 9, 10/15 I planted bunch of tomato plants, some with protection some withoiut. In the following week we had lows going down to 38F ( =3.5 C) .few nights. I have seen no ill effects. BUT before planting out I did check the soil temperature. It average around 52F. So far our average lows have been 42-43F. My plants are normal, though they are growing very slowly. I have seen buds on several of them. I think your plants should rebound. I would water them with lukewarm water (~ 26-27C). When I want to water mine, i fill watering cans and let the warm up in the sun for several hours. Warmer water will raise soil temperature and help dissolve the nutrients better for the plants uptake. JMO Sey

The purple edges could have originated with a deficiency, but since it's on the oldest leaves, which might be senescing anyway, it's hard to say. It's common for young seedlings to have phosphorus deficiency, even when grown under ideal conditions, and they outgrow it as they mature. Those leaves probably have been phosphorus deficient at one time. Not a big deal unless you're seeing symptoms on newer growth. Leaf mold is a fungus. As for keeping things "natural", that's a word that's a moving target, so I don't really know how you define that. If you mean without intervention, your plants will succumb to nutrient problems if you don't fertilize them regularly. So you definitely need to intervene there. You can try to not intervene with regard to diseases by being hypervigilant and pruning off any affected leaves immediately upon noticing the slightest symptoms. Since you live in an area that doesn't have blazing sun, perhaps you can get away with the defoliation, although loss of photosynthesis capacity can also affect production and flavor of fruit. I personally would not try to grow tomatoes in a cool, humid environment like yours without fungicide. Note that the safer, organic fungicides available to home gardeners are almost all primarily preventative in nature. They are not curative. Once your plants have disease, the best they can do is slow down infection of unaffected foliage. And because you're growing in too-small containers, the strategy of giving plants the best conditions and preventing stress to them in order to boost their ability to resist disease is not available to you. The varieties you're growing will be very stressed in those small containers once they get larger. If you want to grow tomatoes without spraying, in future figure out what diseases are common to your garden and select hybrid varieties bred for resistance to those diseases. Even that's not perfect, as resistance does not equal immunity--it just means the plants resist the disease longer and go down from them more slowly--but it could give you enough of a boost to get decent production. And research best growing practices, such as adequate container size.