The leaves at the base of the plants are yellow and spotted meaning they are suffering from "early blight." This is a fungus that is found in the soil and splashes onto leaves when plants are watered or rained on. We have had substantial amounts of rain in the last week and I wasn't surprised to see the disease present itself.
Roma tomatoes are surprisingly disease resistant and typically only suffer from this problem.
So my predicament: how do I "organically" remedy the situation? Aggressive gardeners would buy a fungicide and kill the blight. After a little research I discover I can clip the affected leaves and add some mulch, protecting the healthy leaves from further damage.
Even though it took quite a bit of time, I did pull all the leaves off that were yellow and spotted. I was surprised to see that they were dying and weak, easily giving away from the plant.
I have a newspaper that I was going to throw in my compost barrel but I will use it to mulch around the tomatoes since we are expecting more rain and I don't want to spread the blight again.
Hopefully my plants will continue to thrive despite this issue.
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