I am not sure if this is the problem you are having, but every time I have seen that kind of damage to my tomato leaves in the past it has been right after my neighbor has sprayed Roundup weedkiller around his driveway nearby. I think they call that 2-4-D or something. Anyway, you might want to investigate whether that has been used near your growing area. Supposedly it has quite a large "drift" after it has been applied. My plants always continued to grow afterwards, but I felt they were at least somewhat hampered by the damage.

SnappyBob,

I tend to agree with Raisemybeds. One of the causes of cupped or deformed leaves is a wiff of 2,4-d. There is no interveinal or leaf discoloration, spots, or other visible inications of disease. And while OTV can look a bit floppy at times, the plant in the photo is definitely not a happy one. Stick with it for a while. It may come back.

Garaj

I don't know, wouldn't more of my plants be effected by an enviromental problem like someone spraying weedkiller and the chemical drifting through my yard. The Brandywines are the only ones showing this problem and the one in the picture was the worst case.

Upon closer inspection with a magnifying glass I noticed some tiny clear looking things on the hairy stems and the back of the leaves. Could these be eggs or something? I tried to get as close as I could with the macro on my camera.

Aphids can also cause leaf-curl (as well as the dreaded tomato yellow leaf curl virus, though whiteflies are the usual culprits for this disease), and it looks like you have a few aphids but certainly not many.

Keep the aphids off, and keep a watch on your plants. BTW, those cages look far too small for brandywines. Your plants will get to be 2-3 times larger than they are now, and heavy with fruit.

I would never eat a tomato from a plant that had 2-4-D Roundup on it. The tomato will be poisoned for sure and Roundup causes cancer.

NO THANKS

Link please...

Two possibilities come to mind.

(1)Roundup damage/drift.

(2)TLCV - do a google images search on tomato leaf curl virus, and see how pics compare to what you are seeing in your garden. It can be vectored by whiteflies. If you don't see any change in color/yellowing eventually, probably not TLCV. New growth will also be stunted.

I was going to suggest the rather abrupt temperature and sun change several days ago (which made some of the leaves curl severely on my very late plantings), but even the new growth is curled, so I'm not sure that's your problem.

I would never eat a tomato from a plant that had 2-4-D Roundup on it. The tomato will be poisoned for sure and Roundup causes cancer.

NO THANKS

What does this have to do with the original question?

Link please...

From Organic_Nut? Good luck. LOL.

Thanks Suze, I think TLCV is a good candidate for the cause of this problem. Now let me see if I can find out what to do about it.

Im not sure about your problem your plant appears to be going limp, would have to check into it more, but I agree with the other poster that kind of cage will not work with brandywines whose fruit and limbs will become quite heavy. You can buy a roll of fencing and cut your own to size. Proper tool would be some good heavy duty wire cutters.

I agree, these smaller cages are not the optimum for indeterminates but I have been growing in them for years. You have to be prepared and you have to be innovative but they work OK for me. I just don't have the room to store 25 or 30 full size CRW cages during the off season. Right now the problem is trying to get the plants TOO outgrow the cages.

when i had spots on my tomatoes last season..(like the ones you're showing in the pic) i was told they were caused by a bug of some kind. (i wasn't told WHAT bug though!) i suspected the Phthia picta because they tend to damage leaves and fruit in this manner...

if you google it...maybe you'll recognize it?

I HAVE GROWN TOMATOES MY ENTIRE LIFE AND BRANDYWINES FOR HALF THOSE YEARS...IT APPEARS TO ME THAT YOU HAVE APHIDS.. APHID EGGS LOOK LIKE YOU DESCRIBED AND APHIDS BASICALLY SUCK THE JUICE FROM A PLANT.. I USE LIQUID SEVEN SPRAY THE SEVEN DUST DOESNT SEEM TO WORK ON APHIDS... IF YOU PREFER THE NATURAL APPROACH I HAVE PURCHASED LACEWINGS,LADYBUGS AND PRAYING MANTIS....

can aphids really do that to an entire plant within just a few days?

i have aphids on all of my plants (i keep rinsing them off!) and NONE of my plants look this way...not even close. wouldn't the plant would have to be absolutely INFESTED to look this way from top to bottom? i'm actually asking for my own knowledge here...

personally...i'd be taking leaf samples to the local nursery and asking them. they've always been my best detectives.

The curling of tomato leaves can be a symptom of herbicide damage or viral infection (and probably other things too that I can't think of just now).

The virus possibilities include tomato yellow leaf curl virus and tomato leaf curl virus. You may want to check with your local extension office to see if either are prevelent and/or have been reported in your area. BTW, keep checking the undersides of leave looking for purple veins. Also check for a leathery texture to the leaves. These are indicators of a virus.

If it is 2-4D damage it isn't severe at this time. In advanced and more extreme cases I noticed downward, twisted, deformed stems, and often the skin (for lack of a better term) separated from the stem. BTW, gasoline does the same kind of damage (up until a few years ago people still used gas for weed control around here).

Keep an eye on things and good luck.

Randy

I called the local extension office yesterday and was told it was most likely whitefly infestation. They suggested that I spray it with an insecticide containing Spinocid. I was unable to find anything specifically containing spinocid but found Ortho Max that kills whiteflys and other common garden pests. I sprayed the sick plant really good and also hit the rest of the tomato plants some as well. The guy at the extension office said he also grows Brandywines and sees these same types of problems with them most years. He also suggested that I start spraying beneficial nematodes in the spring to suppress some of the insect problems if I want to continue with heirloom growing.

Looks like some type of wilt

"He also suggested that I start spraying beneficial nematodes in the spring to suppress some of the insect problems if I want to continue with heirloom growing"

Insects are no more a problem with heirlooms than with modern tomatoes. It is true that insects are vectors for disease but disease resistance is the problem and some heirlooms have very little.

Try growing Black from Tula. As far as I can tell, it has no disease resistance.

Hi snappybob, how are tomatoes doing? can you give an update? Did the insecticide worked? Thanks

"[The guy at the extension office] also suggested that I start spraying beneficial nematodes in the spring to suppress some of the insect problems if I want to continue with heirloom growing." [Snappy Bob]

"Insects are no more a problem with heirlooms than with modern tomatoes." [Villandry]

I suppose one might be able to prove that very general statement ... but only with a VERY extensive study considering the vast number of varieties in either category of tomato, the wide divergence in type and regional distribution of insects, and the sheer volume of raw data required to indicate such an assumption.

Casual observation has shown that particular varieties attract and suffer from insect infestation more frequently and to a greater extent in my garden ... but this observation is not made upon extensive research and the data are slim!

The winner in my garden, year after year, has been Cherokee Purple. It's always the most preferred by white flies, aphids, mites and cucumber beetles. This year so far it's been mites. Before I got them under control with some soap spray, the only other of about twenty or so varieties (hybrid and heritage) infested was Limbaugh's RL (what I call the regular leaf variant of Potato Top). They went after those two sweet things like graft on politics even though they are planted at opposite ends of the raised bed ... and there was plenty to choose from inbetween.

I'm thinking variations in foliar aroma and Brix content may have something to do with what attracts which feeding insects to which varieties of tomato plants ... and not whether a plant is hybrid or heritage. But again, such an assumption requires WAY MORE study to prove.

One thing seems for certain though ... extension horticulturalists, as much as I love those guys, GENERALLY are pre-programmed to favor hybrid tomatoes by their education at land grant universities ... so I'm not surprised at all if one would make off-hand judgments or recommendations favoring hybrids. Then again, the "guy at the extension service" may not have been the extension horticulturalist at all ... rather he may have been parttime office help who works as a Monsanto representative at his real job! Or maybe he had just spent the night at Holiday Inn.

Bill