Obsessed by Tomatoes

I have never grown vegetables before. Flowers seem easy, but for some reason vegetables intimidate me. Real gardeners grow vegetables. Well, this year, someone convinced me it was easy to grow tomatoes in pots. And that a South looking porch such as mine would be perfect. So one day, spur of the moment, I bought tomatoes from Madison Market.

Now, I needed to worry about how much to water. A google search about tomato care gave contradictory advice. Turns out one can easily over and under water tomatoes. So, for the last month or two I have very carefully tried to neither under or over water (having no idea what constituted either).

Everything was great, until about 2 weeks ago the leaves started turning yellow. I have a couple little tomatoes forming, but lots of flowers that are doing nothing and YELLOW LEAVES. And every day, more leaves turn yellow. A second google search of 'yellow tomato leaves' indicated that just about everything in the world can turn your leaves yellow - bugs, mold, diseases - it's amazing tomatoes have survived as a species. I really liked the post about nicotine and smoking turning the leaves yellow. I couldn't figure out if it was second hand smoke that was the issue or someone using their butts as fertilizer, but apparently the tomatoes didn't like it. But (not butts), of course, the biggest cause of yellow tomato leaves either under or over watering?!?!??!

So it seems I'm right back to where I started, obsessively either under or over watering. At least it gives me something to think about every time I hit the porch!

(Note the leaves on the side of the plant, there has been a suggestion that maybe removing the yellow helps the rest of the plant, not noticeably yet)