Have you looked for bugs? The best time is early in the morning 6-7 am. Pull off the bad leaves as soon as you see them. If you have any organic suppliers there see if they have any spray to boost its immune system. I am not sure if it is a bacterial or viral disease. if it spreads get those leaves off and pull out the infected first plant. Checking for bugs and killing them if you find any and using an immune booster and stopping it from spreading should save the rest and maybe fix that one. Wish i knew for sure it is always a guessing game and tending to the symptoms.

Here is a link that might be useful: Florida backyard gardener

I never thought about plants having immune systems! Thanks for being so helpful.

I haven't noticed any bugs, but I'll set my alarm clock early for tomorrow and see. I'll pull off the infected leaves today and think about yanking the whole plant out tomorrow. I can sacrifice it for the greater good since I have 7 more.

Thank you!

Certainly no expert here, but it looks chemical to me. The way the damage has traveled through the main veins makes me think the plants' root system has taken something bad up into the plant. Have you been fertilizing? Spraying around the plant? Any thing like that a possibility?

Rick

I thought it might be something wrong with the roots, too, because the whole plant from stalk to leaves looks weak. I haven't used anything chemical in my garden or yard, though.

The only fertilizer I used was some E.B. Stone 4-5-3 vegetable food during transplanting. That was about 3 weeks ago.

I just remembered that I was using one pair of scissors to harvest some basil and prune the tomato plants. I then used the same pair to snip some leaves off of the bell pepper plant because some of its leaves were shriveled. Could cross-contamination be this deadly to just one plant and not everything else the scissors touched?

Gardening is not as easy as I thought it would be... :-)