Question of the Week
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Thank you, Mark & Janna Wilkerson, for this great question and picture!
Their question is about some browned leaves on their tomato plants. Do they have a disease problem?
Actually, these plants look pretty good. They do have a little insect damage on the lower leaves perhaps, but overall they look pretty healthy. During the tomato-growing season, I get quite a few questions about yellowing lower leaves like these.
Well, because of the heat and our lack of rainfall during the summer, and because we often plant tomatoes a little too close together, those lower leaves do often turn yellow and maybe get a little scraggly.
With our vegetable gardens, many of us are extra vigilant that nothing goes wrong early in the season to damage our potential harvest, so we may tend to think that insects or diseases are an issue, but really the plants are just drought and heat-stressed.
Note: this can be a common problem in raised beds, too, where peat moss-based potting soils are commonly used. That peat moss does dry out very quickly, even if it's not watered properly, and those are very difficult soils to get rewet once they've dried out a little too much.