What is wrong with my tomato plant?

Mortomo

I have 3 tomato plants together in one large pot on my patio.  Orginally they were doing really well and looked healthy.  They have tomatoes on them and two cherry tomatoes are turning red.  The last couple of weeks the leaves have been turning yellowish with brown spots on them and they just don't look healthy, but they continue to produce new blossoms and tomatoes. 

I give them an organic fertilizer that is recommended for tomatoes.  I use the same fertilizer on those as I do for the ones planted in the ground in my garden.  My garden plants have gone crazy and are very healthy.

I noticed yesterday that the ones in the pots (that look sickly) have a powdery residue on the stems that I noticed when I was removing the branches that were yellow/brown.  It came off onto my hands.

What is wrong with them?  Will the tomatoes be safe to eat?  I don't see any bugs on the plant, although I noticed than an animal must have chewed off some leaves near the bottom. 

eikome

Could be late blight.

http://www.longislandhort.cornell.edu/vegpath/photos/lateblight_tomato.htm

If so, destroy the affected plants. Pull them up and put them in the trash. It's really contagious in wet/humid conditions.

Jerem2911

It sounds like the tomatoes might have blight? Maybe some other kind of disease?

Cut out all the bad parts of the plant -- I did this a couple weeks ago. And then see what happens.

Mortomo

Thank you.  That's what I was kind of thinking it might be.  The pot is away from my other tomato plants, so the other ones should be ok.  Does it affect herbs or other flowering plants?  Does it affect the tomato at all if the tomatoes looks okay?  They are my first tomatoes to ripen, but didn't want to eat them if they aren't okay.

dirtyred

The blight virus lives in soil--so you need to throw out the soil in those pots, scrub them with bleach, and not use them for tomatoes again.