Tiny Tim tomato possible problem

Hi everyone.

Aside from chilli peppers, I am growing four tiny tim tomatoes, and so far they are progressing just fine. However, last night and this morning I noticed that one of them had big leaf in a weird position, and when I turned it aside...well, this:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/402/img0529ij.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/37/img0530vc.jpg/


What could be the cause? All other leafs and all other little plants are still developing properly and without this.

Cheers,
D.

Hope you figure it out! Never seen it before

Minor update - seems that all of the other leaves are normal, and tiny tim is growing bigger with each passing day. Don't think I have anything to worry about, but I am still clueless as to what that curling was about.

The leaves seem to have a slight case of edema, which can occur with pepper plants also. Usually caused by excessive water or high humidity. Tends to happen more often with younger plants in smaller pots or plants that are becoming root bound. Curling of the leaves is not normal. If its the upper most leaf sets it can be caused by higher ratio nutrients or pest problems such as broad mites. Its good though, the rest of your plants
are doing fine...

Greg

PIC 1 said:

The leaves seem to have a slight case of edema, which can occur with pepper plants also. Usually caused by excessive water or high humidity. Tends to happen more often with younger plants in smaller pots or plants that are becoming root bound. Curling of the leaves is not normal. If its the upper most leaf sets it can be caused by higher ratio nutrients or pest problems such as broad mites. Its good though, the rest of your plants
are doing fine...

Greg

Click to expand...

Thanks a lot, Greg! Yeah, it was just one of the lower leaves - branches on it, however, have turned out to be completely normal and plant has grown a lot since the first photo was captured. Interestingly though, I haven't done anything to provoke the curling; regardless, this particular plant might've been more "compressed" with soil than the other ones - and I might've clogged it up xD

Once again, thanks!

Yet another update; just over night, that affected plant got curled up badly (and the same thing happened with some of my peppers) -.- After more close inspection, all of them have this edema (note: three other Tims are just fine which is weird) or - water blisters.

I don't know what did I do wrong since I've watered them practically when they were wilting and the soil was completely dried out. Going to add even less water next time and see what happens.

i have grown lots of tiny tims in the past and always in containers. i noticed the plants to be similar to patio tomatoes but smaller leaves, though the leaves can get some what large in relation to the normal small, stocky, bush style and it is usually the lower leaves. i have read on other knowledge base websites that tiny tims have regular leaf size but being a determinate plant(versus indeterminate) the size of the plant should be set in its dna but i guess with different seasonal patterns that might change. if i remember correctly, the leaves always seemed to curl under and it never caused me concern. i do remember pruning leaf branches, to give more room for the fruit to grow, but this is not necessary. i just did it but i like pruning tomatoes; i just finished pruning suckers off about 25 plants, all indeterminate; i went out of town for a few days and came back to a lot of suckers.

i am not growing them this year because i decided to focus on other cherry style tomatoes and heirlooms. plus, i really didn't like the flavour, actually it is not that i didn't like the flavour but i wasn't wow'ed, i found them bland - i would still grow them, if i found the plants on clearance and had room for a plant or two but that is not usually the case.

i can't tell by your pics, but 2 questions come to mind: when do you water your plants(time of day) and are there drainage holes in the bottom of the containers? i am wondering what the flow is like as you water - edema is usually caused by roots sitting in overly moist soil( there are other factors but starting with the basic cause is a place to start) and though you are waiting until the soil appears dry before watering, i am wondering if it is just the upper portion of the soil that is dry and the lower is still wet. perhaps drilling holes in the lower sides of the container will aerate the roots better.

good luck(and if i remember, i will check back on this thread).

Burning Colon said:

good luck(and if i remember, i will check back on this thread).

Click to expand...

First of all, thanks for some valuable info there! Second, I do water them from bellow constantly as to avoid gnats (annoying little suckers xD), and I water all of the plants only when they show the signs of wilting. Although little pots have drainage holes underneath, I think it may be quite wise to punch a few sideholes as well - just to aerate it better. I am going to do it right away, and will post new statuses here as the time goes by.

Cheers!

i just spent an hour drilling holes in my pepper plant containers, after responding to this post, i said to myself, exactly what do my current containers look like and sure enough i found holes along the lower side of the 1 gallon containers but many had no holes on the bottom of the container. and i have been doing this for years!

you see, under my 1 gallon containers, i place them in another container like a margarine container or coolwhip(i am hoping i am relating) - another tub that the 1 gallon fits into. what i noticed, those containers that have many holes along the bottom and side of the container had a larger portion of roots trying to get to the water that resided in the second container. can't believe i have spent the summer searching for containers to put my plants in, only to find there are not enough holes for water absorption or water drainage.

hey, thanks for the post!

Once again, Burning Colon was right. It was an edema and as I said, some of my chillies have developed a milder variant. Have read some more about it on this link (.pdf), and aside from puncturing new holes in pots, I've improved ventilation and given up on a bad habit of watering plants during afternoon/night. Hope to see improvement soon.

yahoo, looks like a light just came on for you Denis. i just love it when members post an idea for a solution to a problem and someone tries the idea and it works. especially, when i post a suggestion and it works!!! now i feel like a peacock! prance around, prance around, ruffle my feathers, ruffle my feathers! it's my peacock dance!