Leaf curl question.

[Emeoba69]

I got a fairly late start planting this year, only put them in about a month ago. With the heat and little rain in Cincinnati this month I started watering every day. They started to take off a little about a week and a half ago. Now it seems that they are all suffering from leaf curl that is deforming new foliage. I have five varieties and all seem affected.

Here are some pics I took yesterday hoping for some ID help?
Thanks!

[carolyn137]

There's another thread here where I commented about leaf curl.

When plants are young,newly transplanted, as yours are, they can have leaves that are curled,upside down,you name it, and that's b/c at that stage growth is not balanced.

They usually will come out of it as the plants mature.

In addition,plants can have curled leaves if they are too wet,too dry,too cold,too hot,you name it, and many F1 hybrids always have curled leaves.

If you see curled leaves that are curled into a tight tube,then look for aphids.

Carolyn

[Old chef]

Maybe too much water

Old chef

[Ricky Shaw]

I have leaf curl to some degree on 5 plants out of 30, and the 7 potato leaf plants in that total are not affected. There's a Cosmonaut Volkov moderately affected, beside another that isn't. Same pot size, ferts, and water.

I've had it for years on F1 Big Beef, and this year on all 4, there's zero curl. Go figure.

[clkeiper]

Did you spray neem oil by chance? the bottom picture looks like some phytotoxicity to me... just thinking it looked similar to when I sprayed neem on my small plants to control aphids a few years ago. They took forever to grow through it.. if I even kept them long enough.

[Nematode]

Sorry friend thats not leaf curl but IMHO herbicide damage.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Nematode

Sorry friend thats not leaf curl but IMHO herbicide damage.

I think you are seeing some leaves that are partially white which certainly could indicate herbicide damage,and I forget right now which herbicde since different herbicides can give different symptoms.

But what I see are photography issues since not all plants shown have those white areas.

Carolyn

[Nematode]

Hi Carolyn,
Nobody here knows tomato more than you, but what I see is a sparse plant with venus flytrap leaves.

Tomatoes looking like that in a sea of wood chips can only mean picloram.

[zipcode]

Yeah, the unusual serrated margins in odd pattern, no way it's physiological. Herbicide.

[ginger2778]

Agreed. I looked at those cobra head leafs and the first thought that came to me was herbicide damage. If the plant recovers at all its going to take a long time.

[Father'sDaughter]

I came home from a two week trip and found the new growth of my Early Wonder Pink plant looking just like the pictures above. I've been watching it this past week and it looks like the newest leaves might be returning to normal, but we'll see.

While it's the only one showing this same leaf curl, it is at the front of the line and closest of all my grow bags to the front of our property, and both neighbor's across the street have been obsessing over their lawns this spring.

Based on the info above, I'm now guessing (hoping) it's just herbicide related.

[clkeiper]

I agree with nematode. That second picture has the "leatherleaf" appearance of 2,4-d exposure. the bottom one reminds me of the neem damage of phytotoxicity the one time I sprayed it.

[Shapshftr]

The leaves on that first plant are white in the pic from the sunlight. Other than that it looks like wind burn to me. My tomatoes have the same thing. After I planted them it was hot, dry and windy here for about 2 weeks. Now they are twice the size they were then, and all the new growth is beautiful and healthy. All the old leaves have physiological leaf roll. Here's a good article about leaf roll and curling.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/v...st-or-Curl.pdf

more info http://extension.psu.edu/plants/vege...curl-on-tomato

[Emeoba69]

Thanks for all the replies. This garden is directly next to the soybean field on my grandfather's farm. Im not sure what herbicides they spray but it wouldn't suprise me if it was. Im hoping it is just stress. Not sure how you can "fix" herbicide exposure?

[Shapshftr]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

There's another thread here where I commented about leaf curl.

When plants are young,newly transplanted, as yours are, they can have leaves that are curled,upside down,you name it, and that's b/c at that stage growth is not balanced.

They usually will come out of it as the plants mature.

In addition,plants can have curled leaves if they are too wet,too dry,too cold,too hot,you name it, and many F1 hybrids always have curled leaves.

If you see curled leaves that are curled into a tight tube,then look for aphids.

Carolyn

Here is your comments about it on another forum:

carolyn137(z4/5 NY)
I hope this helps.

OBTW, I am not at all concerned about these plants, they will grow out of it and be fine.

Randy

*****

Thanks for the pictures Randy and thanks for saying that the plants will grow out of it, and I assume you're speaking of leaf roll, which is a physiological condition that occurs mainly with young plants and disappears as the plants mature.

And leaf curl can occur any time that the plants are under stress, and that means too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry , too rapid growth from overfertilizing or too rich soil, and also when there's a heavy fruit burden and many hybrids have leaves that curl normally.

So I ignore any leaf curl unless other symptoms appear.( smile) Heaven knows there are much more serious conditions to worry about than either leaf roll or leaf curl.

And worry I do as do most of us who grow our tomatoes. LOL

Carolyn

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussi...-pics-included

I think mine was also during rapid growth and over fertilizing. Then the heat and wind hit them. I watched them curl more every day until the wind stopped. And the one that's the worst is one of my friends Better Boy plants, that I know got real bad leaf roll in prior years. But boy it cranked out the maters. I never saw so many tomatoes on one plant.