Transplant Growth Curly!

[oc tony]

This is what a truck farmer told me about fresh manure.When you apply it in the spring directly on the field it takes nitrogen out of the soil for the first six weeks to begin decomposing. After the six weeks it starts to give the nitrogen back.

[Barbee]

The horse poo I applied was not even close to fresh, I don't think? It was 4 or 5 years old and crumbly, full of bugs and worms.
Interestingly, the worst of my plants are the ones that I used the normal tomato ferts on. The manure plants are not twisted near as bad. So I'm wondering if my soil was already high in Phosphorus or Potassium and that's what's causing this?

[dice]

It could be physiological, just a reaction to the combination of
moisture in the soil and temperature. Some cultivars seem to
react more visibly than others to a sudden change in conditions
(like from indoors under lights or in a cold frame to outside in
the ground).

It could also be ammonia. After manure has composted more
or less completely, ammonia release levels are moderate, and
the plants have no problem with it. When it is fresh, ammonia
levels are still fairly high, and a lot of different kinds of plants
will twist up and distort when exposed to high ammonia levels
in solution in the soil. The good news is that there are a lot of
organisms in the soil that will eat ammonia, using it as a
nitrogen supply when digesting high carbon materials, etc, and
it will also simply evaporate out of the soil in warm weather
where it is near the surface. So that problem usually levels out
after a few weeks.

Once the plants get acclimated and the soil organisms build up
their populations sufficiently, your plants are probably going
to put on impressive growth in that soil.

[Barbee]

Greg I wanted to update you on my curly plants.
Sure enough, it happens after a rain and as the ground dries, the curling fixes itself. I did not dig any plants up, but just left them in there to see what happened. We had a longer dry spell and the heat kicked in (finally) and the plants jumped a foot. They are flowering, and I have greenies, too. 2 days ago we had a nice soft rain that lasted all day and really soaked the garden. I just managed to get out there today to check on things and the curling is back.
So the curling evidently is not causing problems with fruitset or growth.....just not pretty to look at.