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Tomato leaves curling

megamoo

megamoo

My tomato plants are curling their top leaves up and I just noticed as the light went out that on at least one plant there is brown stuff on the leaves

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Today I gave them a small drink in the morning and it was a very hot day and I came home and found them like the pictures. Yesterday I thought the curling was from underwatering or overwatering. But the brown stuff makes me think its an infection of something. A week or 2 ago there were little green catepillars eating holes in the leaves and so I sprayed them all over with dipel and got rid of the affected leaves. That fixed that problem and they have really grown up since them. They have been watered only at their bases and not onto the foliage.
Anyone know what could be causing this? If its a bug how do I send it to hell :hell:
 
By the look of that bronzing on that leaf it could be mites, an insecticidal soap would do the trick, your plants really dont look too bad so if it is mites you may have caught them early.

There could be alot of other reasons for the leaf curl as well, some simple to fix like nutrient deficencies, and other more dire such as yellow leaf curl virus.

-Rich
 
Here's a link I use as a starting guideline when my tomatoes start to show some troubles, I say guideline because I have to take into count what nurturing I have already done via the soil and fertilizers. Like Rich points out, curling leaves is the symptom, then one starts narrowing down all the possibilities as to why, this chart is just nutrients and not other external factors.

http://www.hydroponics.net/learn/nutrient_deficiencies.asp
 
On closer inspection this morning the brown stuff is only on one or two plants but all have their leaves curling up. I might do a reapplication of dipel and do a foliar feed of magnesium to see if the curl is the result of mg deficiency. Only the newer leaves at the top are curling and after a google search I have found reference to too much nitogen fertilizer as a possible cause. I did give them a dose of fish emulsion and maybe they are too young for that much fert. I will hold off on any more fertiizer and water them real good. Over fertilizing is something I find hard to resist.
 
Nothing I have done has fixed the curling leaves or the browning tint. The brown hasn't spread though. I'll post some pictures.
This is the one that had the brown stuff on it
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I basically beheaded it to get rid of the really bad brown stuff, this is whats left. I should take off all the leaves that have brown on them. On another thread someone in Australia was talking about Broad Mites stunting his peppers and when they get really bad apparently there is brown stuff like my photo.
This is the same plant and it has curling up leaves,
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Most of the other plants only have curling
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This is a different variety but it still curls
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The new growth at the top is twisting and curling
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If anyone has any ideas please post. I'm going to transplant my chillies outside into the same vicinity soon and I want to stop this thing before it takes out everything.
I will pH test the soil today, but from the twisting and curling growth habit my feeling is a bug.

edit: The white flecks on top of the leaves are there because I live very close to a cement plant which spews out dust any time it can get away with it, usually at night. I've grown tomatoes covered in this dust in the front garden last year with no ill affects to the plants so I don't think it is the problem. This year the plants are in the back garden and it is a brand new area that has been filled with 2 metres deep of yellow sand and a new raised bed prepared, with organic siol and mushroom compost. I think this is significant because there are no developed natural bug controls, so the bad bugs might be getting a free ride.
 
That looks like the same thing my tomato plants have been doing only the curling comes and goes and without the browning. Whatever is causing mine, I'm leaning away from the pest theory due to the fact that the curling comes and goes (and any pest damage my plants have suffered in the past has always been permanent). But then again, I am certainly no expert!

You mention the mushroom compost.... I too used mushroom compost for my tomatoes this year. Have you used it before without any issues? Because I wonder if that may have anything to do with it? (pH issue, strength of the compost, etc - I really should get myself a pH test kit!!)

I know nothing about the stuff.... I just saw it at Bunnings and thought I would give it a burl! :lol:
 
I just did a ph test and it was 5.5 in one spot and 6 in another which is apparently normal, but I can always mix in a bit of dolomite lime to bring it up. On close inspection of the leaves there are some small egg like things and little flies here and there, despite using a bug spray. I don't want to go crazy with the pesticides but I really think the problem is a pest that needs a good dose of death. :hell:
 
Death 'em good! :hell:

I just did a quick bit of research and apparently some of the common reasons for curling tomato leaves include:
  • Excessive heat
  • Too much moisture
  • Severe pruning
  • Too much nitrogen
  • Exposure to herbicides
  • Newly transplanted

With any luck, hopefully what you have is nothing serious. If the problem is too much nitrogen, that might explain the "brown stuff" as a burn.

I'm thinking in my case, seeing as the curling comes and goes, it might be something to do with the temperature or moisture (fingers crossed).

As for the flies, are they buzzing particularly around the soil? They could fungus gnats. Or are they little white things? Whiteflies!
 
gasificada said:
Death 'em good! :hell:

I just did a quick bit of research and apparently some of the common reasons for curling tomato leaves include:
  • Excessive heat
  • Too much moisture
  • Severe pruning
  • Too much nitrogen
  • Exposure to herbicides
  • Newly transplanted

With any luck, hopefully what you have is nothing serious. If the problem is too much nitrogen, that might explain the "brown stuff" as a burn.

I'm thinking in my case, seeing as the curling comes and goes, it might be something to do with the temperature or moisture (fingers crossed).

As for the flies, are they buzzing particularly around the soil? They could fungus gnats. Or are they little white things? Whiteflies!
Click to expand...

Heat: Two days ago it was 36 C and its been a very hot spring but they stay continually curled, and if anything are slowly getting worse... so probably not heat.
Too Much Moisture: I am the sort of person who over waters but I have been stern with myself since I mulched them, checking the soil and only doing a short water when they need it. Plus the watering is a drip system so no splashing on the leaves. Not this one.
Severe pruning: When they were only a foot high one of them put out some buds, I didn't want them to grow fruit until they were bigger so I piched those off and then pinched all the suckers as soon as they appeared. I don't think that counts as severe.
Too much nitrogen: First I gave them some general tomato fertilizer, then a week later, because I wanted them to get taller and not set fruit yet I gave them a dose of fish emulsion. I also gave them some trace elements mix and seaweed when they were babies. Since the fish emulsion they haven't had anything and its still gradually getting worse.
Herbicides: They got some cattepilars eating little transparent holes in the leaves and so I went hard on the dipel foliage spray, I really drenched them all over. I only did that once but maybe it was too much. I don't recall them curling before then so that could have been it!!!! I did some more spraying with a chilli and garlic spray since the curling but that probably made things worse.
Newly transplanted: I really carefully eased them out with a hotbox covered at night and shade cloth. They had a long hardening off period. They were out and doing fine for a while before the problems appeared. Definately not this.

So based on that its most probably too much chemicals or fertilizer. I guess I need to wash off the foiliage as much as possible with water, not fertilize them and let them recover.
 
gasificada said:
You mention the mushroom compost.... I too used mushroom compost for my tomatoes this year. Have you used it before without any issues? Because I wonder if that may have anything to do with it? (pH issue, strength of the compost, etc - I really should get myself a pH test kit!!)
Click to expand...

I was just sitting on the throne and thinking and I had an -ephiany light shining through the clouds / smack myself in the head for being stupid- moment!!

When I was preparing my garden the guy at the landscape place recommended a half mushroom compost, half organic soil mix for the raised bed. But he stressed that it had lots of nutrients in it needed for the plants to grow. "So don't add anything else ok !" he said.
"Yeah sure" I said. "I'll remember"

:crazy:

That was about a month before I actually planted into the bed and obviously I forgot. So when I added tomato fertilizer and then a week later fish emulsion, I overdosed the plants with nitrogen, (and probably other stuff) . That must be why they are curling at the leaves. From what I have read the soil needs to be flushed and they should return to normal with no detriment. Definitely NO MORE FERTILIZER

I wouldn't have remembered it if you hadn't mentioned the mushroom compost in your post. Go forums!!
 
I wonder if Einstein to had ideas while sitting on the toilet, but good job on figuring out what was messing with your plants! So this is all because of a fert overdose on the plants? I was thinking that it was a infestation of some sort
 
Well they seem to be growing out of the curling problem, and since they are setting a bit of fruit I'm not that concerned... but the brown stuff on the one plant's leaves is now on another plant. It is actually several plants away down the row and not the one that is right next to and touching the first infected one, which is strange.

In this photo you can see that the brown looks like it is in the veins of the stem.
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It is only affecting the newer leaves at the moment... so perhaps that means that the plant is sucking up infected crap from the ground when it is trying to form new leaves?? But not all the new leaves are affected so it could be contracted on the leaves and spread back down the plant. This is one of those times I wish i had a degree in horticulture :think:
Anyone seen this brown pattern before?

This plant is one that's making fruit right now.
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One has a black spot that I only noticed when I put the pic online. I have to fix the brown leaf problem so it doesn't do anything bad to the fruit

Any ideas?
 
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