focus on new growth rather than the lowest oldest stuff .... lto figure out how the plant is doing currently ...

perhaps they were stressed due to planting ... but since it rained.. it is just showing now???

ken

It will not harm the plant to remove the damaged lower leaves. Many people remove the lower leaves to prevent dirt from splashing on them and causing soil born diseases.

It looks like a fungal damage. Remove those leaves, they won't get better and the fungus can spread.

Problems on the lower leaves are often the sign of fungal infection. You can get that as soil-borne fungus gets splashed up on the leaves, or as rain pushes the leaves down in contact with the soil. I would think it would take several days for that infection to develop, however. Sun Golds are a VFN resistant hybrid, but there's lot of other bad stuff around.

That being said, overwatering, low temperatures, and sunscald can also produce effects like that.

May had some pretty wacky temperture swings, so the couple days of 40s and 50s mixed into the 80s might have stressed them a bit. (Hardening off sure was more complicated this year ... I miss when we had an actual spring season.)

I believe mulching thickly with hay or straw helps prevent soil borne diseases when dirt splashes on the lower leaves. I also remove any leaves that touch the ground.