odd leaf growth

[aclum]

Hi,

I seem to be observing the growth of my tomato plants this year more closely than in the past (probably because I'm trying the single stem on a string drop line for trellising for the first time and am out in the garden more often to sucker and wrap twine around the plants). I've noticed some odd (to me) leaf developments and I was wondering if was just a normal thing I'd missed in the past or if something sinister and unusual was going on.

I would describe it as the main stem of the leaf delevoping a groove along its midline with rounded leaves growing out from (or very close to) the groove. I was wondering if perhaps because I'm pruning so extensively this year, if the plants are generating these "extra leaves" on the remaining stems to compensate. (I'm sure I'm mangling the terminology, but you can see what I mean in the attached photos). In addition to the extra "leaflets" the leaves all seem much longer than what I recall in the past.

Here are the photos (the little white specks you might see are artifacts of the camera's flash, I think, bouncing light off the hair-like fuzz on the leaves).

Thanks for any opinions!

Anne

[kath]

Hi, Anne- this growth looks normal to me as I've seen it on my own plants before but I don't know if all tomato plants do it or not. Just wanted to reassure you since no experts have responded to your question yet.

kath

[Stvrob]

If you see that area start to grow a sucker....Well then that would really be weird!

[velikipop]

I'm no expert by a long shot, but those leaves look normal for potato leaf plants. In fact, I would say they look quite vigorous and healthy.

[aclum]

Thanks everyone for the replies! I can rest easy now knowing that some monster isn't going to emerge during the night from the slowly splitting stem like the incredible hulk burning out of his shirt LOL! Seriously, some of the stems were opening up like buterflied shrimp..... don't know why I never noticed anything like this before. Live and learn I guess <g>!

Anne