Help! Yellowing and Wimpy Leaves on Heirloom Plant!

[misscorey]

I'm a newbie at gardening so please bear with me! I have had an heirloom tomato plant for about 5 weeks now and up until this week it was doing great! In the last few days however I've noticed some of the leaves toward the bottom and lower-middle half of the plant are turning yellow, while others are wilting as though I sauteed them. Please see the photos below:





What could be happening? I don't want it to spread to the rest of the plant, which looks super healthy and is sprouting blossoms and baby tomatoes. I have checked for bugs and can't find any; there were a ton of beetles on my jalapeno plant this morning however, which sits right next to the tomato plant. I water the plant everyday and it sits comfortably in direct sunlight. Is it getting too much water/sun? Please help!

[wolfie]

I don't know about the watering over or under part, however some of my heirloom tomato's have yellowing leaves and I just trim them off. I also trim off where there are no buds forming to try and keep the plant from being unruley!

[misscorey]

The plant is looking worse every day. It seems the wilting has spread all over, although the tomatoes are still sprouting up and the flowers look fine. Could my plant have one of the wilting diseases like Verticillium or Fusarium?

[BrianSkilton]

When I notice yellow leaves I snip them off right away, and it usually doesn't come back. If you are worried about spreading it to the other plants, move it to another location (it looks like you have it in a pot). It could be a fungus problem. You can try using Epsom Salt, find it at Drug Stores. Dissolve 2 tablespoons of Epsom salt in 1 gallon of water, and spray. There are a lot of causes for the yellowing.

[The Helpful Gardener]

There are a lot of causes, but I suspect you had it right the first time; if you are comportable with the amount of moisture you have been providing, then fusarium or verticillium are the constant companion for tomatoes, ESPECIALLY the oldtimers not bred for resistance...

Newbie gardeners are best advised to look at the newer varieties first, ones with F, FF, T, or V, after the names (or all the above). These designators show a resistant strain; I talk about them in this article...


Trimming sick leaves is good advice, but there is little to do if the plant is infected with either other than keeping it away from other plants...

HG