Curly Top Virus just broke my heart-any info?

KBandBK · May 14, 2016

Hello, wondering if anyone else has ever had dealings with this disease?
I just noticed this week a few plants were starting to look odd, the tops of the plants kind of curling/twisting to where the leaves are upside down. The leaves also have purple veins and petioles. At first I thought nutritional problems but as of yesterday it seems to have affected about 90% of the plants (we had about 115 total-reds, pinks, blacks, oranges, whites, greens, bicolored, hearts, I'm dying inside). Did some research and its Curly Top Virus for sure... no cure. I had never heard of this before but google has informed me it is somewhat common in hot, dry areas and is spread by the beet leafhopper. I have not seen any of these critters, although I know they are quite small, but am curious how this affected us so greatly in super humid East Texas. Anybody else ever deal with this down in these parts? Or just want to offer condolences for my poor mater babies as I weep...

KarenO · May 14, 2016

P do you have any pictures? I wonder about the diagnosis if you grew your own seedlings it would be very strange for them to be affected with relatively unusual virus like curly top virus what you're describing could also be something like herbicide damage. Pictures would help us to know. What are they planted in did you use compost or manure ( can contain herbicides) or do you have a neighbour who's a little bit liberal with the round up spray?

KBandBK · May 14, 2016

Thank you for the response. Forgive me I didn't take any pictures of my plants and I'm at work for the weekend but will add some when I get home. I don't think there is any risk of herbicide drift, we don't have much in the way of neighbors and none of the other plants in the garden seem to be affected so far... We didn't use manure, we used a mushroom compost blend we bought in bulk from Mother Earth, a little Epsom salt, and some organic fertilizers. We planted in an area that has been pasture for many years. Again I haven't seen any beet leafhoppers but they are very small, and until last night I didn't know to look for them. This site has some info and a picture that looks just like our tomatoes
http://mytinyplot.com/pests/how-to-s...rly-top-virus/

KBandBK · May 14, 2016

*Bought the compost at Living Earth sorry, not Mother Earth

Cole_Robbie · May 14, 2016

From your link, and looking back at my pics of a year I had damaged plants, the purple looks to be the difference between bad compost/herbicide and the curly top virus. Sorry to hear about your bad fortune.

MarianneW · May 14, 2016

My folks had it bad in SoCal last summer, it took out all of the tomatoes. The leaf hoppers love tumbleweeds and the neighboring properties were full of them. The promptly hopped on over and infected the tomatoes. Get what tomatoes you can then pull out the dying plants. Good news is that it won't persist in the soil until next year.

Next spring, make sure to be very vigilant about destroying all host weeds & it will help.

Sorry for the loss of your plants.

Tracydr · May 15, 2016

Quote:

Originally Posted by KBandBK

Hello, wondering if anyone else has ever had dealings with this disease?
I just noticed this week a few plants were starting to look odd, the tops of the plants kind of curling/twisting to where the leaves are upside down. The leaves also have purple veins and petioles. At first I thought nutritional problems but as of yesterday it seems to have affected about 90% of the plants (we had about 115 total-reds, pinks, blacks, oranges, whites, greens, bicolored, hearts, I'm dying inside). Did some research and its Curly Top Virus for sure... no cure. I had never heard of this before but google has informed me it is somewhat common in hot, dry areas and is spread by the beet leafhopper. I have not seen any of these critters, although I know they are quite small, but am curious how this affected us so greatly in super humid East Texas. Anybody else ever deal with this down in these parts? Or just want to offer condolences for my poor mater babies as I weep...

I had it one year in AZ. My mother had it the next year. Mine only got a few plants in a seperate area from my main garden. Mom's got every plant and we had to replant.
Both of ours happened after an aphid infestation.

kurt · May 15, 2016

Quote:

Originally Posted by KBandBK

Hello, wondering if anyone else has ever had dealings with this disease?
I just noticed this week a few plants were starting to look odd, the tops of the plants kind of curling/twisting to where the leaves are upside down. The leaves also have purple veins and petioles. At first I thought nutritional problems but as of yesterday it seems to have affected about 90% of the plants (we had about 115 total-reds, pinks, blacks, oranges, whites, greens, bicolored, hearts, I'm dying inside). Did some research and its Curly Top Virus for sure... no cure. I had never heard of this before but google has informed me it is somewhat common in hot, dry areas and is spread by the beet leafhopper. I have not seen any of these critters, although I know they are quite small, but am curious how this affected us so greatly in super humid East Texas. Anybody else ever deal with this down in these parts? Or just want to offer condolences for my poor mater babies as I weep...

Us Floridians are going thru our problems with the virus recently.This was posted(below) by a member from Miami(Alexita,thank you)Ginger 2778(Flatag moderator )has some info also about the white fly transmission of the virus somewhere here in the archives.Sterilize seeds if need to,remove all debri in bags,solarize ground if possible to prevent recurrence of virus.I had my dance with the virus.Good Luck.

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=40354

KBandBK · May 15, 2016

Thanks everyone for the responses. Yeah I've been doing some reading and it seems to be a pretty big concern in drier parts like California, Arizona, Utah. Just weird that we got it here... At least now I know, and like you said Marianne, thank the Lord it doesn't persist in the soil! We don't have tumble weeds here so I'll have to figure out what the other host weeds are and take them out for next year, maybe we can still try a fall crop!
Oh and Kurt Yellow Leaf Curl and Curly Top are actually two separate issues although unfortunately they both have no cure... Sorry to hear you are battling TYLCV though, it's so sad to watch your babies get sick!

kurt · May 16, 2016

KB,Just to clarify that there are strong indications that some of Tomato virus transmission include seedcoat,and interior of seed season carryover.That includes debri leftover in field,root infection,etc.Sorry if I misled anyone otherwise.

KBandBK · May 16, 2016

Thank you for clarifying Kurt. I did not know that! Gonna have lots more cleaning up to do than I thought...

MarianneW · May 16, 2016

CTV does not persist outside of the live plants & the virus vectors.

http://extension.arizona.edu/sites/e...ubs/az1552.pdf

KBandBK · May 17, 2016

Here is a picture of what our plants look like

KBandBK · May 17, 2016

Here's another

LMinAL · May 17, 2016

Are you sure this isn't a nutritional deficiency? I don't see any really bad curling in these pics. Cool weather or lots of rain can interfere with a plants ability to uptake nutrients, causing discoloration. Some of my tomatoes started out with purplish leaves, even some curling, but are looking normal now with the warmer weather.

Is there a local agricultural extension agent who could confirm this for you? That's an awful lot of plants to pull.

I know the pain of destructive diseases in the garden. I've been dealing with bacterial canker the last 2 years.

Good luck - it looks like in your area you should be able to do a Fall garden, but I know it's little consolation right now.

May 14, 2016	#1
KBandBK Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: Geneva, Tx (East Texas) Posts: 11	Curly Top Virus just broke my heart-any info? Hello, wondering if anyone else has ever had dealings with this disease? I just noticed this week a few plants were starting to look odd, the tops of the plants kind of curling/twisting to where the leaves are upside down. The leaves also have purple veins and petioles. At first I thought nutritional problems but as of yesterday it seems to have affected about 90% of the plants (we had about 115 total-reds, pinks, blacks, oranges, whites, greens, bicolored, hearts, I'm dying inside). Did some research and its Curly Top Virus for sure... no cure. I had never heard of this before but google has informed me it is somewhat common in hot, dry areas and is spread by the beet leafhopper. I have not seen any of these critters, although I know they are quite small, but am curious how this affected us so greatly in super humid East Texas. Anybody else ever deal with this down in these parts? Or just want to offer condolences for my poor mater babies as I weep...

May 14, 2016	#2
KarenO Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Vancouver Island Posts: 5,932	P do you have any pictures? I wonder about the diagnosis if you grew your own seedlings it would be very strange for them to be affected with relatively unusual virus like curly top virus what you're describing could also be something like herbicide damage. Pictures would help us to know. What are they planted in did you use compost or manure ( can contain herbicides) or do you have a neighbour who's a little bit liberal with the round up spray? Last edited by KarenO; May 14, 2016 at 07:13 PM.

May 16, 2016	#10
kurt Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Homestead,Everglades City Fl. Posts: 2,503	KB,Just to clarify that there are strong indications that some of Tomato virus transmission include seedcoat,and interior of seed season carryover.That includes debri leftover in field,root infection,etc.Sorry if I misled anyone otherwise. __________________ KURT

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May 14, 2016	#5
Cole_Robbie Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Illinois, zone 6 Posts: 8,407	From your link, and looking back at my pics of a year I had damaged plants, the purple looks to be the difference between bad compost/herbicide and the curly top virus. Sorry to hear about your bad fortune.

May 14, 2016	#6
MarianneW Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2016 Location: Arizona Posts: 153	My folks had it bad in SoCal last summer, it took out all of the tomatoes. The leaf hoppers love tumbleweeds and the neighboring properties were full of them. The promptly hopped on over and infected the tomatoes. Get what tomatoes you can then pull out the dying plants. Good news is that it won't persist in the soil until next year. Next spring, make sure to be very vigilant about destroying all host weeds & it will help. Sorry for the loss of your plants.

May 15, 2016	#9
KBandBK Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: Geneva, Tx (East Texas) Posts: 11	Thanks everyone for the responses. Yeah I've been doing some reading and it seems to be a pretty big concern in drier parts like California, Arizona, Utah. Just weird that we got it here... At least now I know, and like you said Marianne, thank the Lord it doesn't persist in the soil! We don't have tumble weeds here so I'll have to figure out what the other host weeds are and take them out for next year, maybe we can still try a fall crop! Oh and Kurt Yellow Leaf Curl and Curly Top are actually two separate issues although unfortunately they both have no cure... Sorry to hear you are battling TYLCV though, it's so sad to watch your babies get sick!

May 17, 2016	#15
LMinAL Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2013 Location: Alabama Posts: 46	Are you sure this isn't a nutritional deficiency? I don't see any really bad curling in these pics. Cool weather or lots of rain can interfere with a plants ability to uptake nutrients, causing discoloration. Some of my tomatoes started out with purplish leaves, even some curling, but are looking normal now with the warmer weather. Is there a local agricultural extension agent who could confirm this for you? That's an awful lot of plants to pull. I know the pain of destructive diseases in the garden. I've been dealing with bacterial canker the last 2 years. Good luck - it looks like in your area you should be able to do a Fall garden, but I know it's little consolation right now.