Tomatoes & Peppers: tomatoe plant problem, 2 by bigdaddie

bigdaddie wrote:
I am getting dead leaves on the bottom 1 to 1/2 ft of the plant. I had a problem with white flies up at the house but can't find any white flies on these in the garden. Had tomatoes there last year (different rows) with out any problems. Plants are mulched with grass about 3in thick and are staked. Tops are OK just the bottoms, we had a lot of rain in the previous months in Tennessee and now we are in a dry spell. Could this be a fungus as it is uniform over each plant?