Richard Sherratt wrote:
This summer was my first foray into tomato growing. I planted one
sweet bite and two cherry sweet bite plants from the nursery in tubs
on the patio. Tubs are ex recycling containers around 50cm by 25cm by
30cm deep. I filled them with tomato mix from the nursery and also
planted parsley, basil and a marigold in each tub. Probably too much
overboard, but I'm a virgo :-)

The plants went gangbusters for a while and had loads of fruit. Then I
noticed that some of the leaves on the cherry ones were curling up
and going brown. there were brown spots on the leaves. It looked
almost like early blight or septoria leaf spot, but none of the images
on the web are really close matches. The toms look a bit diseased.

Is it OK to dump the plants into the garden waste bin or should they
go into the rubbish bin?
Is it OK to plant somethihng else in the tubs or do I need to get rid
of all the dirt?

It depends on what the problem is.


The standard sweet bite didn't get the same leaf spots, but the leaves
gradually went brown and the plant stopped growing and producing
fruit. The flowers stopped budding and then they dried up.

Too much sun? One of my neighbours has shade cloth over his tomato
bed.


Sun scald will produce pale bleached spots on the fruit but not harm the
leaves so it is not (only) that.

Where are you? I am on the East coast and during La Nina summers (like this
one) we get many days of cloud drizzle and humidity, this produces many
fungal diseases. It is hard to tell them apart.

David