another

a few more pics. the yellowing has been going on for about a week or two. this has not suddenly shown up since taking outdoors

another

I had a problem with edema due to my soil holding to much water on my pepper plants that i have fixed after repotting, im not sure if the yellowing is symptoms of edema on peppers or not.

have them in happy frog soil, MG all purpose liquid fert at 1/2 suggested mix, once ever 3 waterings.

3rd and 4th picture look like nutrient uptake problems (coldness or too much water).

the plants showing the yellowing, and discollered leaves also have this on the stems. is this also due to edeam/ to much water/ nut uptake issue, or does this look like blight?

another

another

do these stem pictures also look like edema from over watering? or something else?

All of your pics look like exposure damage to me - a combination of wind burn, cooked roots and sun scorching - a result of forcing the hardening off process rather than doing it carefully and gradually. By now, 3 days later, they should be showing some signs of recovery assuming most of the damaged foliage has been removed.

If not then i suggest you trim off as much of the damaged foliage as possible and shelter them for a week or so, watering minimally, no feeding, and give them the chance to recover.

Hope this helps.

Dave

the stems, the latest pics, would you say this is also due to the exposure, lack of harding off? My main concern was that this could be blight or cancker

Yes, the stem spotting is exposure damage.
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"Blight" is part of the name of three entirely different tomato diseases (Early, Late, and Southern -- none of which are limited to what their name indicates!). In addition, some people use the word "blight" to mean any tomato disease or physical problem. And that makes it difficult to know what people are talking about.

Early Blight: a relatively minor foliage problem which can occur in any season. Affected leaves should be removed and destroyed. Infected plants will continue to produce fruit.

Late Blight: a very bad to fatal fungal disease caused by spores which may travel on the wind for miles. Usually affects leaves first, and later the rest of the plant. Different strains affect plants with different degrees of severity; the most extreme turns an entire vine to a dark, rotting mess in 24-48 hours. Affected plant tissue must be bagged and destroyed to prevent further release of spores. Late Blight can occur during any season, but is often seen late in the year when cooler weather slows evaporation of dampness conducive to fungal growth.

Southern Blight: a fungal disease of stem tissue which first appears as white mold near the soil line or round black spots on the lower stem. Inner and outer stem tissue is affected, and the plant is unable to take up nutrients. Tomatoes outside the South can also contract this disease.

started and grown entirely indoors

Means there has been no exposure to any of the sources of the common tomato diseases. The odds of them having picked up one of those diseases during their 4 hour sojourn outside is 99:1 with the 99% favoring exposure/environmental damage.

There is a natural tendency with all of us to immediately jump to the worst conclusion. With tomato plants that seems to be that it is some horrible terminal disease. :)
What we forget is that most of the time the cause is the most obvious one.

In this case, taking plants that were started and grown entirely indoors and then putting them outside, unprotected from the elements, and leaving them for 4 hours with no monitoring. It is a common mistake and a valuable lesson learned.

Initial exposure should always be very brief, sheltered from wind and direct sun, in the shade, and carefully monitored. Only then can it very gradually be increased over a several day period.

Dave

thanks for all the great replys. Yeah, over caring is probably very likley, the idea of getting blight and loosing an entire grow is a nightmare i dont want to live.

the more i look at these, the more i wonder. its funny you mention black dots as i did notice some.

another pic

another

1 more

from what it sounds like, i'm over reacting, and its unlikely that I have blight.

with these additional pictures, would anyone change their opinion, or suggest that i trash these plants or seclude them?

I agree that it's very unlikely to be a tomato disease and very likely to be a cultural problem. When is your last frost and when do you plan to plant out? If your plant out date is four weeks or less from now, I would try to save them. If it's more than four weeks away, I would start over taking the lessons you've learned into account. Healthy seedlings will grow faster and catch up to or do better than older struggling seedlings.

When hardening off, 15 minutes the first day is plenty. Wind causes more damage than sun or cold, however exposure to sun after being pampered indoors can cause the above pictures. Hardening off is a very gradual process and should take up to two weeks. I usually put a fan on my seedlings for a bit each day to accustom them to wind prior to hardening off..

I get the distinct impression that we can't convince you that not only is it "unlikely that you have 'blight'", it is essentially impossible.

So ultimately you have to do what you will be most comfortable with. If that is toss them then fine. If segregating them is enough reassurance for you, do that.

For comfort in future years take the time to learn the real symptoms of the various types of 'blight', the causative agents, how they are transmitted, the types and conditions of expose required, and the time frame required for those symptoms to develop.

Good luck with your plants.

Dave

update

lost about 30-40 tomato plants in total. They all got the same symptoms, leaves died off, left with a leafless stem that dies pretty quickly.

now im just hoping it has not spread to my pepper plants.

for anyone that is interested, I have sent around 10 plants, some foliage, and soil samples to a plant pathologist to identify what this exactly was. The full report should be back sometime next week.

Nows the time to get your guess's in.

My guess, Sclerotium rolfsii.

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