Joellen,
Like Dawn has said before often it is hard when standing looking at a plant to know what it has and what to do. And even harder when looking at pictures. And often like she says you may have more than one thing going on with the plants. Maybe 2-4. And so many symptoms can fit more than one disease, virus or even a deficiency. I'll be interested to see what Dawn has to say about these pictures. I will go out on a limb and give a few of my opinions and a few suggestions you might consider.

First the only way you will know for sure what you are fighting is too send a sample to your state extension service for them to analyze. Some local extension agents are very knowledgeable and can help and other specialize in other area. Our local agent isn't. So either I have him send it off or I do. I usually just send direct. I assume OK offers this service. I know KS does. I just send them an email and they send back what I need to send. Now I don't do this very often. Only if I have a problem affecting many plants or something unusual I can't put a finger on. Otherwise with the number I have I feel I can afford to lose a few and have too much to do to worry about one plant. In you case each plant is more important and it is affecting one whole bed.

Again the fact it is only in the bed that had tomatoes from last year could indicate a problem and may not. I know people who grow in the same area every year as they have no choice and have few problems. I usually rotate but growing in two areas this growing season where I grew last year. Just offset my holes. So there could be a correlation and again maybe not. I wish the stem picture was clearer. Do you see any splits in it? I pulled one Saturday that had a split in it. The plant wasn't doing well. But no discoloration of any tissue. So decided the hard wind may of caused it. The wind moved several things around Friday night. It might of recovered but I had some extra's I was going to toss this weekend anyway. I will do some more thinking on this. I'm not convinced it is VW. I'm going to attach another link which I consider a good one along with the one for A&M that Dawn listed recently. I did a quick scan and didn't see anything I thought stood out. I think I might send a sample off if you have the time and it doesn't cost much in OK. Here it is very reasonable. Usually if I go through my extension agent there is no charge. Hopefully Dawn, George or some of the others can give you more help. Jay

Here is a link that might be useful: Cornell Tomato Diseases

Jay thanks for the input. In my panic I misspelled Verticillium but oh well. I am going to send a soil sample in this week (as soon as I Google and figure out where to send it).

In retrospect, my tomatoes in these beds had the same problem (yellowing, wilting, and ultimately dying) last summer. I chalked it up to my inexperience as a gardener, over-watering, and lack of fertilization.

The stems on the affected plants are kind of brown and knobby. I don't see any splits, but the stems definitely have some browning, while my "healthy" tomato plants have green stems. My camera isn't the best.

I am about 60% convinced that it is VW...However, I hope I am wrong.

Thanks again Jay!

Jo

That yellow one looks like a Sungold, right? I think I had five Sungold seedlings and planted three of them. I had a hard time picking the best of the seedlings because all of them had yellowing leaves while still in the seedling stage. Had it been anything except Sungold, I probably wouldn't even haven't planted them, but that is our favorite tomato.

I never use pestisides, but will use a commercial fertilizer if I think it will help. Tonight after the sun is low, I am going to spray some of mine with a solution of MG. Our weather this year has been extremely harsh and many of my vines look stressed, especially those in containers.

My advice would be to do what you can by giving them a nutrient quick fix with a foliar feeding, then just relax and let them do their thing. Don't stress out. It's just a tomato plant and they want to grow and 'make seed after their on kind'. Just enjoy what they provide this year, improve the soil over the winter and try again next year.

I have neighbors that have the ugliest plants that you have every seen, and they have ripe tomatoes hanging all over them. I'm sure mine have all the same problems as theirs do, but I just had bigger, stronger plants to start with. My plants probably will not last the entire season either, but I will get lots of tomatoes before they get torn out.

Having said that -- I am neither the tomato queen or king!
You have heard from the king, now let's see what the queen will say. LOL (PS - I am grateful for both of them)

Joellen,

I will be totally and completely amazed if your plants have verticillium wilt because it does not exist in Oklahoma. I believe VW is more of an issue in cooler climates and cannot develop in our heat. (I suppose you could 'import' it on plants brought from an area of the country that has VW, but I still don't think it could survive/flourish in our hotter soils and air temps.)

Soil temps have to be in the right range for many diseases which is why some diseases are more common in some areas or only in certain times. For example, bacterial speck needs cooler temps so if I see it at all it is in very early spring. Bacterial spot, though, can be found all year long, and if I see Septoria Leaf Spot at all, it usually appears no earlier than July.

I think the disease you're thinking of is fusarium wilt, and when I've had it hit a plant or two, which doesn't occur often, the wilt starts and progresses differently from what you're seeing.

I don't think it is fusarium wilt, but it is hard to tell on someone else's plants. I can diagnose it on my own plants because I see them daily and see the downhill progression in them. When I see fusarium, it tends to start on lower limbs and move up, or often is only on one side or on one major limb of the plant first. Your issues are more random than that, aren't they?

See the attached link for info on common problems found in Oklahoma tomato plantings.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Common Tomato Problems in Oklahoma

Carol aka The Tomato Princess (if I am the Queen, I get to name my princesses, right ?),

Have you noticed how often you and I are typing responses at the same time and thus miss one another's comments? It seems to happen a lot.

Sungold seems more prone to Early Blight than most, but I keep planting it because its fruit are superior. Unlike some plants that get EB, it seems to recover well if it is very well fed (almost, but not quite, overfed) before the disease has progressed half-way up the plant.

Jo, I agree with Carol's description of plants that look bad and produce well. I often see plants in gardens near me that look so awful that you're sure the plants are dead or near-death, but they still produce well and often for the whole season.

I looked and looked and looked at the photos you posted and didn't see the concentric brown rings common with Early Blight, but I still think that is what you're seeing. Often, with Early Blight, you'll have the yellowing leaves and some brown spots (non-concentric) for weeks before you'll see the classic bull'seye type concentric spots. For Early Blight, remove all yellowing foliage and spray the plant at least weekly with chlorothalonil if you don't mind using a chemical fungicide. And, to be blunt, without the use of a chemical fungicide, your plants are not likely to survive Early Blight in a climate as rainy as yours has been/continues to be this year. I say that, too, as a long-term cancer survivor who prefers to avoid all chemical pesticides and fungicides but who knows we live in an imperfect world where sometimes the best solution is a chemical one, like it or not.

I don't like using chlorothalonil because I don't like spraying anything at all, especially since I love to pick tomatoes in the garden and eat them righ then and there. If the choice, though, is to spray or to lose your plants......well, look at it this way. You still would be feeding your family fruit that was sprayed with one and only one chemical fungicide. That's still a thousand times better than buying conventionally-raised produce sprayed with many different chemicals. Sometimes, you have to settle for being 'less than perfectly organic' because being 'perfectly organic' can be impossible in some disease situations.

For what it is worth, I have not found an organic spray that is even close to being as effective as chlorothalonil, but there are some organic fungicides. The issue, though, is they are much less effective than the chemical ones. Chlorothalonil, by the way, works by covering the leaves and stems with a protective layer that prevents fungal spores from attaching. So, in order for it to work, you need to thoroughly cover all plant surfaces.

Or, you can ask Jay about spraying a diluted bleach solution....but I don't spray bleach on my plants, never have, and likely never will. I have no idea if it helps with EB, but some people believe it helps with bacterial diseases which develop under the same climate conditions that allow EB to develop.

Dawn

Dawn, I think I love you. My biggest fear is that whatever is happening would spread to all of my tomatoes.

Yes, my issue is random. It's hitting upper and lower branches equally.

I'm not sure what is going on. I have checked out all of the links and tomato problem solvers and can't find anything that causes random yellowing of leaves and branches. But if it's not "contagious", I'm a REALLY HAPPY camper.

Jo

PS Dawn my husband is also a cancer survivor (kidney). He was diagnosed it when my son (now almost 4) was less than one year old. It's a miracle we found it so early, because if it metastasized, it would most likely have been fatal.

That, and children, are what prompted me to go organic. Am Googling Early Blight and chlorothalonil right now.

Jo

PPS: Thank you to Carol, the princess. I am feeling much better!

Jo

Jo, I mentioned I was a cancer survivor because I knew you had mentioned your Dh's cancer a week or two back, and I wanted you to know that even as a cancer survivor who shuns chemicals in general, I don't really have a major concern about chlorothalonil. It has been used for decades and, as far as I know, no direct link between it and cancer has ever been established. Hinted at? Maybe. Suspected? Maybe. Proven? I don't think so. Only you can decide whether to spray it or not, but I have some (in the form of Daconil Home and Garden Disease Control) and I'd use it if I thought I needed to.

If you choose to use chlorothalonil, be sure to use a product containing the exact proven percentage, which is 29.6%. A lower concentration is not proven effective and a higher concentration is not recommended for home gardeners.

Early Blight is so widespread it seems contagious, but I've had one plant get it while the plants on either side might not have it. So, I don't think of it as contagious and it is not systemic, just really common since the spores can exist in soil and can spread through physical contact or by soil splash. Some people believe you cannot raise tomato plants without them getting EB at some point and while that is not entirely true, it is true that if the conditions are such that it develops, it tends to develop over a widespread area.

In my part of OK, EB usually first appears around the third week in June, but I've seen it develop as early as May and as late as August.

Dawn

Jo,
I've tried several methods over the last two seasons especially. Experimented with most. From the copper sprays to using peroxide and clorox mixes. I always come back to a 29.6% chlorothalonil mix. It seems to work the best for several issues and the easiest to apply. This year I have had one plant with EB and another close one possibly with it. I have sprayed probably 8 plants out of the over 100 I have growing. I'm convinced without using it I would of ate few if any tomatoes the last two seasons. I have never had good results with the copper sprays and others do. I do think spraying cages, ect with clorox is good. And I saw some improvement in a few plants I used the peroxide solution on. But the ones I used the chlorothatlonil on showed more improvement I felt. I have researched it and feel if applied right it is as safe as anything you can spray with. The only insecticides I use are Garlic barrier and have BT to use if the horn worms keep coming. Pulled another one last night. I did use spinosad last year. I feel safe using the garlic spray.

I agree with Dawn I never felt it was VW. I have only had it once that I can remember. In a year where we had an extended cool period and as I remember wetter than normal. Which has been a while and why I can't remember as well. Either in late August or Sept. So not a common problem at all here. More common I think in the northern parts of KS. Usually we are hot enough here we don't have issues with cool season diseases and dry enough we don't see those caused by wet conditions that often. I've decided too pull my mulch away from my stems a little so they can breathe. Think when I've been adding the shredded tree leaves I've been letting them pile up around the stem and keep it wet.

I haven't used that much fertilizer ect on my plants especially the last 2 years with my high soil test readings. I have went back this year to spraying them with a spray high in the middle number(P). I think it was Darrel on a forum when I first started said he used one the highest he could find till heavy fruit set then went to one with a more balanced numbers. Mine has a middle number of 59 I believe. Last year I used it on the container plants after a month and they weren't growing like I felt they should and also the 24 plants next to them. Then after fruit set switched to the liquid Bonnies feed and had good results. So that is my plan again this year. The high middle number encourages blooms but also good root development.

Again like Dawn said I know some tomato growers who claim they just trim the bad leaves and stems off and they do recover and produce. My experience is if I don't spray with Chlorothalonil they don't recover. And I raised tomato plants for years with few EB problems. The last 2 years have made up for all of the good years I've had. I would say 60-80% of my plants have had it or a combination of things the last 2 years. Knocking on wood hoping for better results this year. Jay