Looks to me like you have aphids??
http://www.hgic.umd.edu/media/documents/hg83000.pdf

Sure does look like aphids....those little white clusters of "things", almost indescernable as bugs. But they are very damaging. I've seen them on roses, but never on tomatoes.

Definitely not aphids. I know what aphids look like, and there are no aphids at all on them. This is more of a disease type thing, not a "bug" type pest.

It could possibly be spray drift. I've had leaves look like that a few times. One time I'm sure it was chemical drift from weed spray. The other times I wasn't sure but looked the same. If not that then did you give them anything? And is this an old or new garden area? Just a few things that might help someone help you. Hope you can figure it out. Jay

Your first pic looked like it might be aphids. Doing a double take, looking at the other pics......no, those pics do not show signs of aphids.

You say you had the same problem last year, and apparently planted in the same place, which looks like the side next to your house. I was wondering if there might be something in the brick siding that has leached into the soil, even the soil you replaced, and is somehow affecting your plants.

This is strange, since as you said, they'd apparently gotten off to a good start.

If it were me, I'd be inclined to get some new plants and start over in a different spot, if they continue to decline.

I tend to lean towards Jay's idea that it might be chemical drift, but to be fair, I've never seen aphid damage on tomato plants. It isn't that I don't have the occasional aphid, but rather that the lady bugs gobble them up.

If it is herbicide drift, it could potentially be from as far away as about a mile depending on the chemical used, the lay of the land, the strength of the wind, etc., so you might never know where it came from. And, I am assuming you don't use a weed-n-feed type lawn fertilizer that might have gone up into that bed where you're growing tomatoes. The only other way to get herbicide damage, if not from drift or the use of granular weed-n-feeds too close to your beds would be a herbicide-contaminated mulch or compost product and that is relatively rare, unless you mulched with hay that has been sprayed with something like Grazon.

The only other thing I was thinking when I looked at the photo is that it might be the early stages of cucumber mosaic virus. However, I haven't seen cucumber mosaic virus on tomato plants in years, although I occasionally get it on my cucumbers.

Why don't you go to the attached link of the TAMU tomato problem solver webpage and compare your plants to the photos on the leaf and stem pages and see if you see any resemblance between your plants and anything shown on those pages. When you get to the problem solver page, just click on leaf or stem to get that page to come up.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: TAMU Tomato Problem Solver

I would cut off a section and put it in a baggie and take it and your pics to your county's Extension office. They've really been helpful to me in the past.

we had a problem that looked much like that but much worse last year. Wife got happy with the round-up, we did not have much weedeating to, or many tomatoes to eat either

I will attach a few links to sites I use that have some information about spray drift and how it's symptoms on tomatoes. It could be an insect. Last year mine showed up a few days after I sprayed with Neptune's Harvest. But decided it was spray after watching it and studying it. I hope your plants pull out of it. And like mentioned above if there is some residue in the ground the plants may get it when the roots grow into it. Jay
http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/path-ext/Alerts/2006%20alerts/Alert11.asp
http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/hfrr/extensn/problems/Herbicid.htm
http://www.clemson.edu/public/regulatory/plant_prob_clinic/fact_sheet_folder/herbicide_damage.html
http://www.clemson.edu/public/regulatory/plant_prob_clinic/fact_sheet_folder/herbicide_damage.html

There is something about that twisty, distorted foliage that looks so familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

I still lean towards herbicide damage because it is fairly common and often leaves foliage looking like that.

I'm not totally sold on it being any disease although it might be CMV or even curly top virus. I've only had curly top virus on one plant though, and from what I remember, it progressed through the entire plant very quickly and I pulled up the plant as soon as I realized what disease it had. Normally, though, a viral infection will cause some serious discoloration of foliage and I don't see that in the photos.

So, if it is not a disease and if it is not herbicide damage, you have to ask yourself what else it could be. That only leaves you with a physiological issue, which it could well be. Many physiological issues are related to weather conditions.

For example, heavy, heavy, heavy rainfall for days or weeks on end can waterlog the roots and interfere with the plants' ability to take up nutrients from the soil. When that happens, you tend to see a specific progression of symptoms.

First, the plant growth stalls. Partly it stalls because the roots are essentially suffocating in the overly wet soil and cannot take up nutrients, and then it also can stall if the skies stay cloudy endlessly and the plants aren't getting a lot of bright, direct sunlight.

Secondly, because nutrition is impaired and even photosynthesis is impaired by constant cloudiness, the plant foliage is off-colored, often yellowish-green and sickly looking, and sometimes with a purplish cast to the veins, undersides of leaves or even leaf edges.

Third, you may begin to see excessive leaf curling, twisting or cupping. However, you don't normally get the third step without the first two. In my experience, it takes about a month of very wet soil to take you through this cycle and, often, the soil dries up before you get to step three.

In your photos, though, the plants aren't off color and you say they are blooming and setting fruit, so I don't think your tomato plants' problem is necessarily due to waterlogging. However, some waterlogging and some excessive cloudiness could have stressed the plant and contributed to what you're seeing.

So, if it isn't excessive waterlogging, that leads to some other sort of physiological stress. You didn't say if the plants face south or west, but if they do, it could be reflected heat/light from the wall behind the plants. When a long cloudy, rainy period is followed by sudden hot, sunny days, you'll often see physiological leaf roll. As the plants adjust to the increased heat and light, the plants should resume normal growth. Usually, after a week of suddenly hot and sunny weather, the plants begin to adjust and recover if there isn't something else (like herbicide drift or waterlogging) complicating the situation. If this were the case, you should see the same thing happen every year in April or May when a week or two of excessively cloudy, wet weather is followed by sunny, hot weather.

Diagnosing tomato plant problems by plant photo or by descriptions of what the plants are doing is an imperfect science. Even when I am standing and looking at a plant, I have to run through a whole mental checklist, ruling out "this", "that" or "the other" before arriving at a diagnosis I'm comfortable with.

If you have never had the soil in that bed tested, I'd get a soil test just to rule out that there is any sort of imbalance in the soil, especially if you grow tomatoes there every year without adding organic material like compost, manure, etc. on an annual basis to replace the nutrients used by the plants.

Finally, be sure you are not overfeeding your plants. Many people overfeed their plants and are surprised to learn that overfeeding can be as stressful, or even more stressful, than underfeeding. Plants that are overfed often have great color and rapid growth---so much so that they produce more tomatoes than the plants' vascular systems can support. The result is a stressed, struggling plant covered in fruit.

So, we all have given you a lot to think about, but I think the answer to your plants' problems is probably one of the many things we've discussed here in this thread.

Good luck figuring it out.

Dawn

Is anything flying around them? Does it look like there are aphids in the air rather than just on the tomatoes, and will they get on you -- little white aphids? If yes, I had Asian whooly (wooly) hackberry aphids last year. If it were that, you would surely see the aphids all over the trees. The wet look on the leaves looks like it could be from the aphids.

Do you spray? If yes, you could have spider mites. They often appear in gardens where they are sprayed and wipe out all good and bad bugs.

I agree about showing the plants to the extension service or here it would be the Master Gardeners. Also the links provided are a good idea.

I had no idea that the spray from herbicides could be carried that far --- yuck!

If you take a trip to anyone, you ought to take some soil too.

One more thing, gently lift the rose to see if it is loose. Or start diggin around to look for mole runs. This could also happen if a vole or gopher has eaten all the roots. If the roots are gone, you have your answer. If there are large holes, then the roots really are not getting water.

Sammy