Yeah you may right - aphids, or some type of tiny leafhopper? My aphids are usually reddish. If you're just seeing a few I doubt that they'd do enough damage to cause harm. But they do multiply, if handpicked they can be controlled easily on one plant. Leafhoppers on the other hand can spread curly top virus.

Doesn't seem to have curly top virus ... just kind-of droopy. Is that the aphids, or is there something else going on?

It's raining today, so maybe some will be washed off, but we'll spray it down if they're still there tomorrow.

(That's a pepper plant next to it.)

This is a new planter ... previous years we've used an orange one of the same shape; I think this one is a tiny bit bigger than the old one, both self watering from Gardener's Supply (the orange one is probably like ten years old). The ladders are the same ones we always use, and this is the same location where we've grown Striped Roman the last few years. It is droopier the hotter it is, but it's not even hot today and it's still not as perky as the others. Potting soil is all or mostly Coast of Maine potting soil. (We might of dumped the end of another bag in the bottom, still new potting soil, just maybe lower quality.)

If not the bugs, is the new pot causing this? Something systematic? What should I do for it to get it to perk up?

doesn't look like a problem to me. a few aphids. or bugs in general isn't going to harm a well established plant. so don't worry if it's only a few here and there.. get yourself a spray pump that has an angle head and spray them off the tops and bottom. once they are off, they will not know how to get back on the plant.

So looking again today (now that its not raining), I'm worried there is something more wrong with it ... Still doesn't really look like curly top virus based on my google results, and CTV is also not that common around here from what I've read. None of my plants are imported from elsewhere in the country; they're all grown locally (this one and a handful of others are from a local farm, and the rest are grown from seed).

Is there a disease or condition that just causes wimpy branches?

The plant on a whole isn't stunted (it's about the height it should be), and the leaves are normal in color and texture. The plant is just not as sturdy as usual ... doesn't even seem like it'll support fruit well.

We moved the pepper away from it just in case.

Could this be bacterial wilt?

If it is, will it still produce tomatoes? And does bacterial wilt only spread by soil, or can it spread by insects, too? This is a container plant, so I'm hoping its only by soil. How do I dispose of or sanitize the soil if it is bacterial wilt? I fear just taking it to the dump would potenially spread ithe disease elsewhere.

Might it be a nutritional deficiency? My tomato starts do that when they get too big for their pots.

Its likely from stress. too much water, food or root bound.. how many gallons is that pot? a tomato plant needs at least a 10 gallon pot to grow properly, and even that may be small for a longer growing season.

carol, which nutrients? I thought most nutrient deficiencies caused color changes in the foliage (yellow, copper, purple, etc.)?

stevie, I think this planter holds around 11-13 gallons of soil, slightly larger than we used last year (about 8-9 gallons last year); other tomatoes are in similarly sized pots. New soil, self watering planter (has a reservoir under the soil with over flow drainage), no fertilizer (same as every other year we've grown these).

I think it was rootbound prior to transplant, but it's been in this pot for at least a month and has certainly grown; I'd have expected it to be dead by now if its roots hadn't gotten past its tiny pot stage.