Not sure what's going on here

[TerpGal]

Hello al! I am having a bit of trouble with several of my tomato plants. They are planted in a first year no dig area. I put cardboard on the grass in April and added 6 in of compost and that's what I planted in. Unfortunately for me, the carbon to nitrogen ratio was way off with a majority of the compost being woody material that is still in the breaking down process. So when I soil tested, virtually no availible NPK. This unfortunately was after planting. I think I fixed the problem with an application of blood and bone meal. My Black Ethiopian and my Rosella Crimsons look great and healthy. The others are as below. Small, curled up leaves. The plants are still growing and are about the same height as the healthy indeterminate. I'm not sure if I have disease here, lingering effects of nutrient deficiency, or possibly aphids. I cleared an epic infestation from my okra today. A few aphids on the tomatoes but nothing really crazy. I have had both curly top and herbicide drift before and nothing looking quite like this. Any help would be much appreciated.20210614_170830.jpg

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[PaulF]

To my eye, the plants look healthy enough. The curl may be a natural reaction to heat and sun. As the new compost and woody mulch breaks down there may be a nutrient deficiency. Perhaps if you watered with some plant food in a watering can. I would suggest the kind called "bloom booster" with lower nitrogen and higher P and K. There is still enough N to help green growth. I am not sure how often to apply this plant food; maybe once a week for a while.

Wish I had a definite answer but that is my suggestion. Good luck and maybe some better answers will follow.

[KarenO]

Agree with Paul. They look ok overall. What varieties because if hearts or pastes or other elongated fruit they are probably normal for the variety.
A soluble tomato fertilizer is the easiest once a week. Can’t expect much from the “soil” they are in this first year. A soil test early next spring will guide your amendments as you build the soil
KarenO
KarenO

[TerpGal]

Originally Posted by KarenO

Agree with Paul. They look ok overall. What varieties because if hearts or pastes or other elongated fruit they are probably normal for the variety.
A soluble tomato fertilizer is the easiest once a week. Can’t expect much from the “soil” they are in this first year. A soil test early next spring will guide your amendments as you build the soil
KarenO
KarenO

I've got a whole row of pastes going. The other row is indeterminate slicers. In addition to the blood and bone meal, I've done an application of fish emulsion and an application about a week later of Micracle Gro rose fertilizer as my flowers in the same area were showing signs of P deficiency. I will likely keep that up weekly for now.

[paradajky]

I had a similar issue with about 1/3 of the tomatoes in our patch here, the plants were thin, leaves "v" shaped like yours only two weeks after transplanting to ground. Now seven weeks later, the majority look this way, and appear to have a disease, all that work



Hopefully yours will show recovery and be successful!

[zipcode]

That's typical nutrient deficiency, especially P and N. Stunted plants, phenolic accumulation, etc.

Now, I don't know your growing conditions, but at this stage of young plants that is usually caused by poor root development or too wet and cold soil or very dry.

The usual course of action is to wait, the first signs of recovery will be a dark greening of the tops, the loss of those anthocyanins. I've seen commercial growers really like to use dilute foliars at this stage, to bypass those roots and kickstart the plant earlier.

[b54red]

I agree that you are showing signs of nutrient deficiency. An easy fix might be a dose of a good balanced liquid fertilizer like Miracle Grow. Your plants may be suffering from poor root growth especially if they were root bound when planted or if they were planted too deep.

Bill