Looks like possibly Late Blight. If so, Serenade will not cure it, I don't think anything organic will.

Agree Late blight , pull them ,bag them in garbage bags and get rid of them ..in a few days they will be a stinking slimy mess that you dont wanna touch so do it now

Guys? We don't actually get late blight in San Francisco, at least not in my lifetime. Calm down. :)

The third picture is stem death from botrytis, a grey mold which likes cool damp conditions. I'd call the purple haze on the second picture's leaves the aftermath of powdery mildew, which likes (again) cool damp weather. Serenade may help with both; I know sulfur would.

The yellowing makes me wonder about the soil used for the containers, and what you've fed them. I'm leaning toward N deficiency and maybe a secondary of some kind (iron? magnesium?); that likelihood doubles if you used inexpensive potting mix, which sometimes has uncomposted wood in it. I've gotten zinged by that several times. The curling purple leaves suggests phosphorus deficiency, and since I don't think you've been *that* cold across the Bay (soil temps lower than 50, I think not) I'd lay that at the feet of the mix as well. Feed those guys a full balanced fertilizer with micronutrients and see if the colors disappear.

I agree that you have fungal spots on the Sungold, but precious few... don't get water on the leaves when you irrigate, keep up the Serenade, and pick off the leaves that get spots, and you should be fine. A couple of leaf spots aren't a disaster if it's not spreading quickly.

--Alison
in the far East Bay

Alison-

Thanks for the info, albeit several hours too late. Both of these plants have been pulled and trashed. It saddened me to have to pull the Sun Sugar - it was the most developed of my 1st try at tomatoes this year.

Unfortunately, it seems that late blight is indeed an issue in the San Francisco area, according to Pam Peirce of the Golden Gate Gardener. This is a picture I took this afternoon as I was taking down the Sun Sugar.

I'm familiar with powdery mildew on my snap peas, but hadn't seen it on the tomato plant.

Both plants had been fed with a 5-10-10 tomato/vegetable granular fertilizer about 4 weeks apart. Given that they were in containers, I might have been better off with a soluble fertilizer.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pam Peirce

Well, I guess I didn't think we had it here because it doesn't turn into the epidemics they get on the East Coast, so we never hear about it in the East Bay... it takes lots of moisture to infect, and I guess if anywhere is going to have that, it'll be the fogbound coastal areas like SF. :(

I have never encountered it on tomatoes in the inland valleys, at least when nobody's trying to push the season (farmers are the worst culprits there); it's primarily a potato disease inland, and potatoes aren't widely grown even in the delta or Sacramento. During the summer, anybody east of the Caldecott (or south of the Bay proper) has so much sun and so little humidity that it's almost unheard of except in greenhouses. So that's why I was doubtful, along with the ambiguous look of the earlier pictures. (I admit, that new picture really does look like late blight.) I'll take note that the fog can be enough, and the pathogen must be in the environment somewhere.

Sorry you lost your plants, but good work on pulling them despite my advice. Perhaps if you clean up thoroughly, you could try again with cuttings from a neighbor's plants, in the hope of catching better weather...

--Alison
totally not infallible