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jkhsdsu

Help! Tomato Leaf Disease!

11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago

Hello all! I am new to the forums and am in desperate need of help. My otherwise healthy heirloom and Hybrid tomato plants (Black Krim, Brandywine, Big Rainbow, Sungold, and Black Pearl) all have developed this strange new leaf shape - what is going on?!? My brandywine leaves have also started to curl themselves. Thoughts?

Brandywine leaf curl


What's going on with these leaves?

Comments (8)

  • 11 years ago

    Looks like leaf curl in the first picture at least. Usually caused by stress to the plant...under or over watering can often be the culprit. Second picture looks a little different to me...not positive on that one. Could be leaf curl or could possibly be fertilizer burn, or pesticide issue??? However, I am not an expert gardener, so I could be wrong. Hopefully Sey or Dave will weigh in for you.

    jkhsdsu thanked lillivewire87
  • 11 years ago

    And there Sey beat me to it :)

    jkhsdsu thanked lillivewire87
  • 11 years ago

    The second picture looks like it could be herbicide damage or viral disease.

    jkhsdsu thanked donna_in_sask
  • 11 years ago

    Most of the leaves on all of my tomato plants look like the first pic. I think it is due to less then ideal weather. I am in a community garden and I see a lot of leaf curl on other gardeners tomato plants, grown in different soil and using different fertilizer then I am. We are limited in our water usage since we are in an area of drought, that could be another factor. Otherwise, my plants have good looking tomatoes. I've been told it is nothing to worry about... I have never seen anything like what is happening in the second pic...


    jkhsdsu thanked User
  • 11 years ago

    I'm with donna_in_sask on this post for pic #2 it really very, very tenuous. I'm not sure whether "Brandywine leaf curl" refers to pic #1 or #2 as titled, and I can't tell a potato leaf from a regular leaf in the pics with the small fields of view. Closeups are essential but so may be wide-field views.

    We don't know where these plants are climate wise? Are they in California? We can't see if the plants are stunted, etc... we have to take the word of the OP that "everything is OK, first time grower" without the chance to look it over, so any help is going to be severely limited.

    It would be better to post pics of the plants in situ and a run down of the environmental conditions up front. Anyone with an opinion or fresh mind can then judge independently. Agree the leaf roll is nothing to worry much about with OP. However: as the second pic with the twisted curl, How could one know if it were the onset of beet curly top virus or tomato yellow leaf curl virus? These diagnoses are usually not simple things like a litmus test.

    Knowing little of the context for the pic: herbicide drift sounds good. But something new was added ... drought conditions. It is possible we are seeing a response to drought on the young leaves twisting up like that.

    PC


    jkhsdsu thanked PupillaCharites
  • 11 years ago

    The 1st image shows physiological leaf roll. Not a disease. Usually passes on its own.

    The 2nd picture shows herbicide damage which causes leaf distortion that resembles virus disease but is not the same. Cause can be drift on the air, or herbicide carryover in organic matter, perhaps compost and/or manures. See this info and do the bio-assay to determine if it is carryover:
    http://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/sfn/f09Herbicide


    jkhsdsu thanked jean001a
  • 11 years ago

    Thank you everyone for your awesome responses! You've all certainly calmed a number of my nerves.

    I'm in the Midwest region and thankfully we've gotten a decent amount of rain in the past few weeks. However, the particular Brandywine pictured with the leaf curl lives underneath an overhang so the leaf curl may actually be from lack of water as well so this all makes sense.

    My husband informed me that we did have our lawn fertilized and sprayed for weeds (for the first time ever) and although he gave them strict instructions to stay away from the garden maybe some of the herbicide drifted?

    Other than avoid spraying for weeds is there anything I can do for the herbicide-affected plants now??