Leaf Roll/Curl

[bigcheef]

Thanks to another thread discussing an article which mentioned causes for leaf roll/curl I have begun to wonder which I am experiencing on my Kimberly plant.

This is my first year with Kimberly so I just thought it may be normal.
I am growing in a 15 gal. container and watering just the same as the rest of my container plants. No other problems with the plant or fruit. In fact, Kimberly will provide my first table ready ripe fruit this evening and is one of my taller plants. It has been very productive with green fruit popping out everywhere, but just has severely curled or rolled leaves.

I guess I will just ignore this as suggested by comments in the thread mentioned above, but I would appreciate any comments or suggestions as to what exactly is going on here:





RIK

[A. Wiser]

Hi Bigcheef,
Thought you may want to take a look at this info concerning leaf roll...

< http://www.oznet.k-state.edu/dp_hfrr...toleafroll.htm >

I have 3 plants out of 16 with this condition in different severities and on 3 different varieties.
Hope this helps...
Good luck with your mater patch!
A. Wiser

[stew008]

I've had exactly the same problem this year, the leaves on all my plants started out fine, lush green and very healthy, but over a two week period, after the plants were about 3 feet tall nearly all the leaves curled up and turned leathery (except one plant). They have never recovered to date and the plants look stunted and very poor. It seemed to happen after I started to pinch out the side shoots, I think that was the tipping point that shocked them. The only plant that didn’t curl was a black cherry which I didnt pinch out and the leaves are perfect, and that plant is huge and thriving.

All my plants are growing in a polytunnel in the ground, and I water them every 7 days. Next year Im going to use raised beds, horticultural fabric and a gravity fed automatic irrigation system from a water butt using a 1/4 strength nutrient and leave more space between the plants, the idea being to shock the plants as little as possible.

[bigcheef]

Hmmm,

Interesting information A.Wiser,
and makes complete sense.

Since my Kimberly plant has been very vigorous,
Maybe it's root are having a hard time keeping up
with the top growth.

stew008,
You may have some different stresses causing the leaf curl on your plants. My Kimberly is the only variety I have this problem with and even it is not "stunted", just has curled leaves. It's still pumpin out fruit and has new growth at the top.

RIK

[carolyn137]

I think it may have been me in another thread who was distinguishing between Leaf Roll and leaf curling, for they are two distinct phenomena.

And I explained in that other thread what Wiser has linked to and that's that Leaf Roll is an imbalalnce seen early in the season when leaf and root mass are not in balance and it self cures as the plants mature.

There are all sorts of reasons for leaf curl and I ignore all of them unless there are other symptoms seen as well.

Big Cheef, was it not what Ii posted in that other thread that caused you to ask the same question here?

[travis]

So then ...

Is the symptom shown in the photograph leaf roll or leaf curl ... it seems as if that question remains unanswered.

If that question remains unanswered, is there information, preferably with photographs, someone can link to that distinguishes between leaf roll and leaf curl?

Since this question pops up from time to time, it would be helpful for those of us who cannot yet tell the difference to have something to refer to so we call it by its correct name.

PV

[Rena]

This is the first time I have seen it in my garden...or maybe noticed it lol. It was in all of my Black Sea man but it did not effect harvest and I ignored it. I did watch to see if it jumped to it's neighbor Rena's Turban but it did not spread.

[bigcheef]

Carolyn,

Yes, your comments in the other thread did prompt my starting this one. I just didn't want to hijack Papavic's thread discussing the newspaper article.

I'm inclined to just ignore the leaf "curl" and understand that I do not have leaf "roll".

I would be interested in what some of the many causes of this symptom (leaf curl) could be.

Thanks for all the info,

RIK

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by bigcheef

I would be interested in what some of the many causes of this symptom (leaf curl) could be.

Thanks for all the info,

Basically Leaf Roll is a physiological problem while most causes of leaf curl are environmental.

I think I went over the leaf curl stuff in that same post but here it is again.

Leaves curl when it's too hot, too cool, too dry, too wet, too windy, or when the plant has a heavy fruit burden and most hybrids have leaves that curl normally.

If leaves curl over into a tube like structure, check for aphids.

So as I said above, I ignore leaf curl unless there are other symtoms.

Leaf curl can occur at any time while physiological Leaf Roll usually occurs early in the season when the plants are still immature, as I said previously.

[bigcheef]

Thanks