Help with Diagnosis

[JoeP]

Hello TV. I am a new gardener and have a few plants that are not growing out of their early season crud.

The Paul Robeson plant looks like a skinny christmas tree with leaf curl and browning leaves at the bottom and some pigtailing of the branches. But the top is growing, making flowers and a couple of little tomatoes, and the new growth looks healthy.

Background:

• Very cool and wet spring
• Began with alkaline soil (7.4) that was amended to acidify
• plants spent 6 weeks under plastic tunnel cloches that trapped too much humidity
• had a magnesium deficiency that was corrected with epsom salts (both watered in and foliar feed)
• watered in a micronutrient solution to cover all my bases.
• Used a Fish and Seeweed emulsion fertilizer (2-3-1) two or three times

The oldest plants that were planted adjacent at the same time are doing fine but some others are holding onto their leaf curl at the bottom while the middle and tops look fine and healthy. The Paul Robeson is the most severe. I have dozens of plants that are healthy and green but were planted three or four weeks after Paul Robeson so did not have as long of exposure to the magnesium deficiency or the cool/wet.

I have found no aphids on this plant to cause the leaf curl. There are some small black flies but they are on all of my plants.

My questions:

1. Could this be magnesium deficiancy that wasn't corrected in time for this plant?
2. Is this a foliage disease, a virus, or just stress from a horrible beginning?
3. If this is a foliage disease, will Daconil help?
4. Should this plant be pulled? I am guessing that since it is the same height as the other plants the same age, is growing and making flowers & toms, that it isn't too serious.

I look forward to your insights.

Thanks in advance.

[Timmah!]

Looks like a nutrient deficiency. Daconil is strictly a preventative, not a curative.

[ubergoober]

Wow...I have never seen a plant behave like that. It is very skinny isn't it. Sorry I have no insight. lol

[French-Connection]

I would go with Number 1. Well a deficiency of some sort in the past.
Just remove the damaged leaves for now and see what happens.

[amideutch]

Dissolve a couple uncoated aspirin tablets in a quart of water and apply as a foliar spray to the plant. Follow up again in 2-3 days and thats all I would do for now. The plants on either side look good so don't worry about amending the soil at this time. Ami

[Timmah!]

Ami, are you thinking it's a disease of some sort?

[amideutch]

Don't know. But the aspirin foliar will fire up it's defenses and help it fight off what ever it has. New growth on the top of the plant is a good sign. It just may have suffered some type of stress. Ami

[hasshoes]

It looks to me like it *could* be a virus or viroid---- I live by a field with lots of leafhoppers so I've seen quite a bit of the grasshopper etc spread viruses. Do you have any photos of the top of the plant and the top of the leaves?

Also check out vegetable md online they have a lot of pics of plants with viruses/viroids.

Ps- did you prune it that way or is that the way it has grown?

[hasshoes]

example of possible virus

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...26tbs%3Disch:1

[JoeP]

Hasshoes,

I have not pruned this plant except early on to keep the lower leaves out of the soil.

I'll post some more pics now and take some more and post of new growth, top of plant, etc.

Thanks,

[JoeP]

Here are some more pictures taken of the new growth and healthy looking part of the plant.

You can see from that picture of the three plants that it is the same height as the Carbon to the left and Pruden's Purple to the right and were planted at the same time. It is just not as bushy (although plants behind make it look fuller).

It is making tomatoes. There are three little toms and many flowers. The carbon next to it has 4 times more flowers than my SunGold Cherry and nearly as many tomatoes.

The last picture is of a Pineapple in another bed and is another example of leaf curl at bottom, healthy leaves on top and significant new growth (with a few little tomatoes too).

The Paul Robeson is the only one with the early crud that stayed so skinny. It looks like a plant that I had pruned to a single leader and staked but I have done no pruning (except to keep leaves off the dirt).

[amideutch]

The only thing strange is it is only one plant amongst many showing this affliction. I've had plants before exhibiting leaf roll and they continued growing and producing fruit with no problems. Plus the new picture of the upper growth of the plant seems fine. Ami

[JoeP]

Thanks Ami,

I'll try your asparin foliar feed and maybe remove the afflicted lower branches.

I may be overly cautious but this is my first garden and I didn't want to jeapordize the rest of my plants to try and salvage this one if it was something serious. I feel better after several people didn't tell me to pull it immediately.

Thanks again.

[Timmah!]

You can do like I & take some samples to your county agricultural extension office. I called mine when I was wondering about the symptoms one of my plants were exhibiting. She told me to bring in some samples. I took them over & within 45 minutes was assured it was nutrient deficiency. (My ag. extenstion office is about 8 miles from my house) =)

[hasshoes]

I do agree with Ami the top of the plant looks okay--- in my experience with viruses the new growth always looks the freakiest.

If not a deficiency or a physiological stress (maybe you didn't mix the soil as well there?)- perhaps it could be something like a mild form of mold or mildew. That's not something I've had until recently however so I'm just throwing that out there as a possibly wrong guess. My powdery mildew plants get yellow-y though. No need to pull for that regardless. :0)

I had a plant with a virus this year growing and flowering despite having it (I was torn about the diagnosis until it became totally evident). . . just spray your plant and keep an eye on the bug situation. I have a lot of bugs here so I need to be "pull- happy" :0) but if you don't have tons of bugs you don't need to stress as much, as I don't believe these things are spread via the air.

Good luck and keep us updated :0)