Higgs Boson said:


I put in several different varieties of tomato this year. Got a late start so did not grow
from seed; bought plants.

They started out like gangbusters; bore plenty of fruit. But foliage began to look
crappy and twisted (no critters; I checked), and plants have now been almost denuded.

They have had food, water, and plenty of sunshine. So why?...

That's a pretty vague description, but with only that to go on,
and keying off of the word "twisted," it suggests either some
sort of virus infection (which could have been brought in by
a hit-and-run pest, or by a person working with the plants who
had previously had contact with tobacco or some other plant
that was carrying a virus) or maybe herbicide damage. You
found no obvious pests, but thrips and spider mites are pretty
tiny and you might need a hand lens to spot them.

Pictures and more info might be helpful. Any yellowing? Did it
go 'top down' or 'bottom up' the plants? Lesions on stems?

Sad to say, but mass produced plants shipped all over the country
have been responsible for spreading some nasty stuff around.
That having been said, even seeds can sometimes carry disease,
and I've thrown out some suspicious tomato seedlings in the past.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/vegetable/tomato-problem-solver/
http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/DiagnosticKeys/TomWlt/TomWiltKey.html
--
Pat in Plymouth MI

"Yes, swooping is bad."

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