More tomato problems for a newbie!
 

Hello all,

One would have thought that less pests and disease would have been the compensation for living up here in the frozen north! Here's the tomatoes in my Earthtainers. Should I have pulled the really bad one weeks ago? Is it too late!

Your plants don't look bad to me... just pinch off those bad leaves near the bottom so it doesn't spread, and feed them something while they are ripening up some fruit.

It's normal for the bottom leaves to start yellowing and getting this or that malady at a certain point in the season when the plant starts to scavenge their nitrogen. A lot of growers also just remove all the leaves up to the first truss early in the season, to prevent pre-emptively any foliar disease from splashback from watering. So the plants can do without those leaves, for sure, but they might like to be fed.

Not sure about the last plants which look droopy - could be normal if they're 'wispy leaf' types? I'm assuming that when I generalized that they look pretty good.

Not trying to be a jerk but I dont understand why folks let the leaves stay on that look like that for so long.
At the first sign of trouble cut them off, they wont heal or get better and it will only get worse.

In the frozen north we have diseases and pests but rarely is there a reason to pull up plants. That's a Southern thing mostly because they can get some serious incurable systemic diseases.

Ya, they look a bit droopy, are they getting watered enough? Some of that yellowing and browning on the lower leaves looks like drought stress.
And about those pest issues, what is chewing on your leaves and making those white spots and making holes?

I agree with Ray. Remove all of the discolored leaves. Give them some water and see if they perk up. If they do, then you are under-watering and need to increase the amount that you are giving them. It does seem that you have some insects sucking and chewing on your leaves. Look on the undersides to find out what they are. Then treat them as necessary.

You're not too far away from me and I have a lot of Flea Beetles this year. Not much you can do about them and they don't cause that much damage. As others have said, trim off the diseased leaves and they will look a LOT better as well as getting more air flow. We usually get Septoria and/or Early Blight, but still manage a good harvest before the frost kills the plants.

Linda

Thanks all.

Definitely not drought - I've stayed on top of that and we've had plenty of rain, so I couldn't dry them out if I'd wanted to. I've also fertilized enough I think (I happen to use organic).

Why the one plant has wilted so much I have no idea. Ironically, that's the one I've taken the most discolored leaves off.

I don't think you're being a jerk, Worth! We all have a limited amount of time and make priorities. To my inexperienced eye, the one wispy plant required heavy pruning to be saved, but I didn't think the others were so bad, so I didn't think it was worth my time pruning them. But seeing you put it so bluntly, I see that removal of discolored leaves should always be a high priority. Also, I think I have the beginner's tendency of being scared to cut!

I have a question. Is this a good or bad bug? Houston area.

Too mean and nasty looking to be a plant feeder, it's built like a predator.
Some sort of assassin bug?

Yes it is an assassin bug.
I had a hatching of them just the other day.


Worth

Ok thanks. I have seen assassins around and they had tiny necks. This one has that big block neck like some stink bugs. I tried to look up the bugs native to Texas but could not find an exact match in photos. I am leaving him but have heard that stink bugs will suck and split tomatoes..

Assassins go through several stages of growth look.
Stinks will ruin tomatoes by causing scar tissue and making them impossible to peel.
Think of them as giant chigger bites.
Oddly this year I have had very few stinks and what few there were or are hang out around the okra.
Okra doesn't seem to be effected by them like tomatoes are.
Maybe a deformed pod every now and then but nothing to freak out over.
Okra may very well be a good trap crop.
One years observation isn't enough to determine this though.