The yellowing started about 2 weeks ago on the lower branches, spreding upwards. Discolouration seems to begin at the leaf margins. Then, brown patches appear, but I don't think they look circular for the most part. Kind of papery?

But that's not what I see in the photo. Sigh.

Is the purple color on the leaves for real?

Ant wilting when they shouldn't be?

What does the label on the plants say as to where the plants were raised?

Have you grown tomatoes before in the same area with no problems?

Carolyn

Well, as I was writing my post I thought "What would Carolyn ask me" and tried to be as thorough as possible, alas still more things I didn't cover :)

Ok, if you see circular spots that's great, I'm just saying it didn't look that way to me, but I have not experienced many problems with my plants before (knock on wood) so I wouldn't necessarily recognize it.

I have grown tomatoes in the same spot for the last 3 years with no problems (other than ground hogs and slugs). I would have rotated them somewhere else but there is nowhere else in my yard that gets enough sun, and I HAD to have my tomatoes.

The purple, which I meant to mention, is something that came out in the photo. In life, they look to be a true brown, I really focused on whether or not they looked purple before taking the photos and it just didn't look like it.

As for the label, not much help there. I bought the seedlings from a local nursery, which is usually where I go for plants. I have no more history than that, sorry.

Oh, and other than the colour change, there is no wilting. Even the leaves which have been yellow for awhile don't seem to be about to kick it just yet.

thanks so much for your reply, and I would love more!

What are you fertilizing with and how much do you water or how much has it rained? I am wondering if this could be a nutrient deficiency problem.

Oh jeeze. Now I really don't know what to think. New developments...

First, I fertilize with a 6-12-12 granular fertilizer that says it is specifically for tomatoes. The soil was mixed with compost and topped with a peat mulch. I added more compost once about a month after planting. Admittedly, I forgot to fertilize for about a month, but did so about 3 weeks ago. I have thought about nutrient deficiency but it still could be almost anything, right? I would be happy if that were it!

Water: We have had a good distribution of rain. Fairly frequent, no major dry spells. There have been a couple of very hard storms, lasting several hours, in the last month. Of course, on the off days I look at the soil and temp. and determine if I will water. For example, if we have just had a major downpour, I will skip a days watering. I do not have a soaker hose, but put my sprinkler on so that it just drizzles out (not wetting the leaves) and leave it for about 10-15 min. I try to aim for the recommended 1" per week, it is likely they get a little more than that, but not by much.

New stuff:
I can now see some areas that DO look like round-ish brown spots, without a doubt (good call, Carolyn). Not only that, but some of the very lower branches look purple-ish. It's faint and I'm not sure if I'm imagining it :)

Also, there are some areas that have very small extremely dark (black?) shiny spots, not always perfectly round. It looks like it is something that dripped or splashed on the leaves (i.e. it's raised), maybe it is, but maybe it's the leaves themselves? There are only a few like this but they are not close together and I cannot imagine what would have dropped on them that would look like that.

I took more pics and will try to post them, but I think I broke something on the laptop trying to get the memory card in and (sadly, I know) have to wait for my DH to come home.

I feel bad, I know there are a hundred questions just as vague, but I'm trying. And we all desperately want our plants to survive. What will I do without REAL tomatoes this year?

I should mention that before this, the plants were amazing, by far better than any I have seen in my neighbourhood (yep, I snoop).

Thanks again.
a sad gardener.