alienated

new/top growth looks like creatures from outer space :-[



or just extreme curly tops? except that leaves don't leaf out and then curl inward---they already start out curled.

i've checked each link in the problem solver and haven't found a photo quite like this. pls help diagnose. thanks much,

--meg

[Frog]

It looks disturbingly like the damage we have seen from Aminopyralid contamination here in the UK.

It's a herbicide contaminant found in manure and also in hay or straw purchased as a mulch.

Hope that's not what you've got, don't even know if Aminophyralid is licensed in the US.

[dice]

I would say virus or herbicide drift. (Slim chance of a mutation,
like the cultivar Stick, but that would likely be one plant only
in a garden.)

[aninocentangel]

http://www.avrdc.org/photos/tomato_diseases/index.html Try the above link to look at some tomato disease, although I must say when I first looked at the picture I did think Aminopyralid. It's been approved for use in the US since 2005.

[Blueaussi]

Originally Posted by dice

I would say virus or herbicide drift. (Slim chance of a mutation,
like the cultivar Stick, but that would likely be one plant on

I agree. Any neighbors out spraying?

Hope that's not what you've got, don't even know if Aminophyralid is licensed in the US.

ditto, because that could mean that all plants are toast, correct? Search led to a Health Canada notice re aminopyralid and an agent there said that it was first registered with them in February 2006.

only Green Grape, Green Doctors, Dr Carolyn, Sunsugar, Suncherry have the deformation, i.e., small-fruiting varieties. And only in the top new growth. The bottom part of the plant has healthy leaves. The middle part looks like this. Is it the CMV shoestring?



a few other plants have leaf roll but not as tight and they seem to be able to unfurl in a few days, e.g., Early Siberian.

I agree. Any neighbors out spraying?

how far does herbicide drift travel? I think the city uses a vehicle-mounted sprayer on neighborhood playgrounds/parks and there's one just around the corner from my place so i can imagine drift coming from that. Can enough drift be produced from a hand-held spray bottle and how near a neighbor should it be?

the soil mix contains purchased compost that includes horse manure, chicken manure, straw in the list of ingredients. If it's contaminated, shouldn't all the plants have been affected or are some varieties more susceptible/tolerant than others? And shouldn't the plants be deformed from the very beginning or is there a build-up period? They've been in that soil mix for 2 months now and there's about 2 to 3 feet of good fruitful growth before the problem showed up.

and i thought this was going to be the year of the bumper crop. I'm gonna miss green grape, was looking forward to green doctors, first year in maybe 10 that i'm not gonna have sunsugar. sigh...

--meg

[dice]

Some plants but not all, symptoms on top growth on an otherwise
healthy plant, sounds like an insect-borne virus. Could be CMV,
but there are lots of others.

may be a dumb question but if the bottom half is still healthy, can i just chop off the top symptoms-ridden half? the remaining fruits in the healthy bottom section look so happy, yummy, and innocent...

--meg

[dice]

You can try that. (Not much to lose, right?). If it is a virus,
they usually spread pretty fast through the plant, and new
top growth that grows from side shoots will still show the
symptoms.

A systemic herbicide will likewise spread through the plant, but
there are some herbicides that only affect what they actually
touch (like the clove oil + cinnamon oil organic contact
herbicides). Ditto if it is an "allergic" reaction to a pesticide
of some kind. The effect should be localized to the tissue
that has absorbed the toxic substance.

jul 1st, some Sunsugar and Sandy's Chocolate Cherry were ready for the picking.





today, i couldn't stay away, had to try Sandy's which is new for me. Oh so yummy!

then cut off the plants above these trusses. This is heart-breaking :-[

--meg

[mdvpc]

Meg-tell us about Sandy's Chocolate Cherry-its not a variety I am familiar with.

got the seeds from Casey's Heirloom Tomatoes in Airdrie, Alberta. here's his description of Sandy's Chocolate Cherry:

This small, sweet black cherry tomato has distinct olive coloured shoulders. Sandy’s Chocolate Cherry sets its fruit much earlier, has thinner skin and softer texture than both Black Cherry and Chocolate Cherry. It was reported from the originator, Sandy Fruch whose backyard garden produced this tomato, that the flavour improves when the fruit are exposed to sunlight.

--meg

looks like all 54 plants inside the greenhouse are now showing disfiguration (of leaves and fruits) in the upper section to some degree ='o(

i'm glad i planted 6 tomatoes outside the greenhouse, all tumblers and minis---they are not showing any symptoms!?! similarly, the basil and sweet peppers inside the greenhouse are fine.

this is Little Lucky in the greenhouse, one of the earlier bottom leaves is bigger than my hand while the new growth on top is definitely abnormal for this potato-leaf type



how does one protect the tomato plants from herbicide drift? Even if i find out who's spraying do i even dare confront them about it? Can i even look forward to next year? sigh...

--meg

[dice]

If it is inside the greenhouse but not outside, it is not likely
herbicide drift. Herbicides would affect more than just
tomatoes, too. The basil and peppers would be similarly
distorted.

So, I would guess a virus. The basil being immune to it
is not a surprise, but it is odd that it would not affect
the pepper plants.

[dice]

So, I would guess a virus.

A viroid (smaller than a virus, no protein sheath, etc) is a
strong possibility, too. There are viroids that infect some
species without that species showing symptoms, which
could explain the peppers (the tomatoes show symptoms
while the peppers do not, or at least not yet, even though
the peppers are infected, too).

While none of the viroids mentioned in the abstract at the
URL below (summarizing a research report) are particularly
likely to be it, the results do show how viroids can affect
some infected species but not others:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/j730578238253502/

Probably no one outside the greenhouse and plant disease
research community has ever heard of the viroids mentioned
in the paper above, and that likely goes for a great many
others, any one of which can be infecting your greenhouse
tomatoes.

This paper describing plant virus infections in the context
of a pepper cultivar that has genetic resistance to a common
pepper virus gives some insight into what may be going on
with the plants:

http://vir.sgmjournals.org/cgi/content/full/80/10/2785

Here is a page from UCDavis on management guidelines for
control of viruses and viroid diseases:

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r2801...html?printpage

The one thing it does not mention is aspirin. A slightly
transformed form of salycilic acid is active in plant immune
reactions to virii and other pathogens. Your plants seem
kind of far along for aspirin to have much effect, but it would
probably be helpful to inoculate young seedlings in the future
with aspirin to help them resist infection in the first place,
either with a soil drench, foliar spray, or both.