Tomato leaf changes - first time grower nerves

EC

Hi all This may sound silly but this is my first year growing tomatoes and from seed too so I'm a little panicky about recent changes to the leaves.hope you can diagnose the problem! Firstly older leaves went leathery, shiney and curled in towards the main stem Then the individual younger leaves started rolling in from the sides Now I've noticed brown and yellow marks on some leaves which I've cut out. We have had very hot days and a couple of cold nights and there are blackfly on them if this helps. I'm just praying its not blight. This is my first forum post hope I've done this right!

Hostafan1

not blight. Sounds like they  don't like the cold nights. Try draping fleece over them at night

Italophile

Any chance of a photo or two, EC? Leaves can curl for all sorts of reasons, most of them harmless. It could be the temperature fluctuations.

The brown and yellow marks could be fungal problems. Or not. A photo would be really useful. Failing that, can you be more specific? Are there little brown "bulls eyes" with a paler halo around them? If so, that's probably Early Blight. 

BLT

Water with the addition of a foliar feed ie tomato food and you might want to spray with a systemic funghicide as it sorts out so many problems ...  Sometimes its a trace element shortage and feeding sorts it out.. Water the plants in the evening when its a lot cooler...  Deleaf below the first trusses...  Good luck, home grown tomatoes have the most wonderful flavour, it will be worth the effort.  If you do spray leave the picking for 4 days after spraying ok.

EC

Thanks for the advice and reassurance guys. My iPad won't upload images so I'll try and get some up this evening on another computer.

EC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EC

Here's some images Italophile hope this helps! BLT ive been a good girl and cut off the leaves at the base of my plants any suggestions as to what systemic funghicide to use?

Dovefromabove

There's no way I'd spray anything systemic on something I intended to eat!

and my understanding is that in order to be at all effective any fungicide needs to be applied before the fungus/blight spores land on the plant. 

baza

This is my first time growing from seed aswell .One thing i've noticed  that if i miss one day of watering the tomatoes the leaves curl in especially on hot days so in the evening when the sun is not so hot i water the roots and give the leaves a sprinkle of water also .This seems to be doing the trick for me as i have loads of tomatoes on them just waiting for them to ripen.

here is mine

 

I have no idea if this will help you as i'm a novice aswell he he

Let us know how you get on

Thanks

Baz

Dovefromabove

It's not a good idea to wet the leaves Baza - that makes them perfect hosts for blight spores to settle!

If the tomato leaves are curling because of the heat that's not a problem, they do it to reduce transpiration of moisture from the leaves - it's what they're supposed to do.  Then when the heat drops the leaves uncurl.

Just water the compost - keep the leaves dry.  They won't absorb moisture through the leaves anyway so wetting them is useless. 

Italophile

EC, fret not, they look like lovely, healthy plants. You've got some minor fungal disease - those spots and patches - so just nip off those affected leaves and destroy them. As Dove says, spraying against fungal problems has to be preventive. Once fungal spores have settled on foliage, they're pretty much impervious.

Are all those stakes supporting the foliage of one plant or do you have more than one plant per pot? It's hard to see clearly. Either way, it looks very cluttered with foliage which works against good air circulation. Air circulation is the best natural aid against fungal disease, it keeps the fungal spores on the move. If you do have more than one plant to a pot, keep it to one per pot next season. Give them space.

I'd take off some of the lower foliage for starters. It's good to keep at least 12" of clear space between the lowest foliage and the soil. Fungal spores fall from the foliage to the soil beneath and can be splashed back up onto the foliage when watering. 

Apart from that, you can be proud of your first time growing from seed! 

Baz, Dove is right yet again. Never wet the foliage, particularly at night when there's no sun to dry them. Damp foliage is heaven for fungal spores.

As a rule of thumb, if you see things that bother you on the plant during the warmth of the day, wait till after dark when it's cooler and have another look. Plants react spontaneously to stimuli like heat but relax again later. This is particularly true of drooping foliage. Foliage can droop on a warm day but that doesn't necessarily mean the plant is short of water. It's a common misinterpretation. Wait till after dark. If the foliage has perked up again, no need to water. If the foliage is still drooping, water. It's always best to monitor the plant's needs rather than - eg, water by rote.