Leaves and stems curling on tomato transplants

10 years ago

Hello fellow gardeners,

I have been growing tomatoes among other veggies and herbs and have never had this issue before. Please help if you can:)

My tomatoes were started in trays using a seed starting soil until they were ~2-3" then the Romas were transplanted into small cups with seed starter soil and the Sweet 1 Million were planted in solo cups with Promix Vegetable and Herb soil. The ones transplanted in the smaller, seed starting soil are totally fine but the ones transplanted into the solo cups with Promix are all leaf curling (see photos). I did clean out all the cups with a bleach solution prior to reusing from last year.

My questions are:

1: Has anyone had a similar issue with Promix for seedlings?

2: Is the issue more likely transplanting into to large of cups to fast or the soil or the type of tomato?

Thanks!

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Comments (4)

digdirt2
10 years ago
Looks like the many pics we see this time every year of herbicide drift. Tomato plants are especially susceptible. You, a neighbor up to 1/2-1 mile away, someone has been using a 2-4D based herbicide. If they were already planted I'd suspect contaminated mulch.

Dave
harryshoe zone6 eastern Pennsylvania
10 years ago
Most of my tomatoes look like that. Peppers too. Before I put them outside. Most of the leafs look fine except for the newest growth. I guess it is possible that some chemical drifted on to them when they were out for a hardening session. But, hardening takes place on the patio surrounded by many other plants in all stages of growth. No other plant shows problem.

I am wondering if the inexpensive paper cups I started them in contained some toxic substance.

Or maybe they were in very cool temps in my basement due to a colder than normal April and May.

They are outside now enjoying warm temps and a soft rain. I expect them to recover fully.
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harryshoe zone6 eastern Pennsylvania
10 years ago
Just three days after transplanting outside, the plants are looking better. Of course, this improvement may just be caused by the effects of changed soil, water or temps. Or maybe just time which allowed some healing.

How are yours doing Stephanie?
anapnea7b
10 years ago
We had the same exact problem with our transplants in cups shortly after upping nutrient concentration in the water. The new growth (suckers and top growth) curled up and turned a dark purple. Some varieties fared better than others, with the Romas and Crimson Sprinters most affected. All but the most severely affected plants grew out of it after we flushed the soil with water several times and stopped applying nutrients.

We are not 100% sure it's an over-fertilization issue, but the problem started immediately after we upped the fertilizer (all other variables were unchanged).