tomato disease again!

[Ed of Somis]

So, I had some trouble last year with this too. Several of my young plants are displaying unusual leaf growth. The leaves grow very narrow (sword-like). It can be described as "spindly" growth. There are no signs of bacterial/fungal problems. There is no black or yellow/brown spotting. The vigor is reduced, also. I have an idea what this is....not sure. What do you think? Sorry, I can't do pics (too old). Thanks in advance!

[ginger2778]

Impossible to help without pics. Got a neighbor, or kid who can help?

[SueCT]

Also information about the variety might help. Some varieties have whispy type leaves and tend to look droopy compared to other varieties.

[Ed of Somis]

I do have several varieties affected (including Big Beef, Cherokee Purple, etc). It is looking more and more like what folks here describe as "shoestring" leaf growth.

Could be herbicide damage---

[MissS]

Yes it might be herbicide damage. Have you or your neighbors sprayed your lawns and yards with anything recently?

You can check these photos and see if it helps. https://www.google.com/search?source....0.fPxZCawXFJ4

[zipcode]

Is your pH in normal range? Microelements are usually responsible for this sort of problems (and many of them are less available at high pH or high P application). I had narrow leaves, I had suddenly bent down leaves, and other things, it was all deficiencies or toxicities. Unfortunately I can't pinpoint the exact culprit, since I don't have leaf analysis, but copper was probably involved somewhere.

[Ed of Somis]

I say thanks to all for the help. I am now thinking that it is indeed herbicide (roundup) damage. I sprayed in the area...making sure there was no breeze. Maybe that was not enough caution. I think I just learned that tomatoes are hyper-sensitive to herbicides. The damage does resemble CMV...but I will pull the plants and replace.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Ed of Somis

I say thanks to all for the help. I am now thinking that it is indeed herbicide (roundup) damage. I sprayed in the area...making sure there was no breeze. Maybe that was not enough caution. I think I just learned that tomatoes are hyper-sensitive to herbicides. The damage does resemble CMV...but I will pull the plants and replace.

Ed, that doesn’t sound like roundup damage. It could however be very mild 2-4-D damage. You get leaf browning from roundup and if enough gets on the plant the whole plant will die. I have had both in the past and the 2-4-D is much more frustrating because it takes so long to tell if the plants will survive. I think it would take a fairly heavy drift of roundup to kill tomatoes but very little 2-4-D to do irreparable harm. If your leaves look like the examples MissS posted, particularly the upper left one, it would probably be better to pull it and plant again rather than wait and hope for a recovery. When I had 2-4-D exposure it took a long time for some to recover and some never did.

Without good pictures it is impossible to know what you are dealing with.

Bill

[Ed of Somis]

Bill,
I am not sure what products have 2-4-d...but I do not think that has been sprayed in the area. Some of the "sword-like" leaves are towards the top...and some leaves display the "clubhead" look, also. I thought I saw "glysophate damaged" tomato pics online...and they displayed the sword-like (shoestring) look. I guess I should pull them. update: I see 2-4-d is in the weed n' feed products. I did not use that around tomatoes....just roundup.

[Ed of Somis]

sword-like growth lower left and upper center

[b54red]

Ed that looks like 2-4-D herbicide damage to me. Since the plants are so small I would pull them and start new ones. I made the mistake of leaving mine and waiting for them to outgrow the problem but the ones that did recover took so long I would have been much better off to replant and they were much larger plants than yours. The 2-4-D doesn't have to be sprayed near you for it to affect your tomatoes. All it has to do is drift in with the wind and it doesn't take much.

I have already sprayed Roundup between my tomato beds twice in the last 6 weeks and it was a bit risky as it was fairly windy when I did it but I kept the sprayer on a more coarse setting with lower pressure to reduce drift and would pause spraying when the wind gusted. I have damaged enough tomatoes and other plants with careless use of Roundup and it never looked like what your plants look like in those pictures.

There is the possibility that you got the 2-4-D in your soil from some organic source like manure. I have a friend that was an organic grower who ruined a section of his garden for beans and tomatoes because of contaminated manure. 2-4-D is sprayed on a lot of pastures and can survive through the cow and be in the manure in high enough concentrations to cause problems.

There might be other explanations for the stunted growth but I don't know what they could be. Maybe someone else has seen this kind of leaf stunting from something else and could chime in.

Bill

[zipcode]

Yeah, that looks a lot like herbicide. In that case best to cut that growth and wait for new normal one to appear.

[b54red]

I forgot to mention in my last post that your plants are not showing as severe symptoms as mine did so they might recover faster than mine did. But like I said your plants are younger than mine were when they got it and may recover faster or slower. I just don't know.

Bill

[Ed of Somis]

I took out the 3 damaged maters...and replaced them with extra grow-outs that I saved. Last year I had CMV...and it looked similar, but more severe. I have a lot of different scenarios going...in ground maters, maters in new potting soil, and maters in old re-used potting soil. Next year I will not re-use any of that old potting soil. It is hard to nail it down, really. Thanks for your help! Ed