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Tight curl on top leaves of tomato plants - what might be the cause?
January Man
Posts: 212
in Fruit & veg
Hi all
I've only looked into the matter briefly so far, and it would seem that there a quite a few things that can cause leaf curl in tomato plants...
I've got around 25 or so plants; 11 planted into a bed, and the other half in pots. All outdoors/none under cover. The top leaves of the ones in the bed have been curling inward. The potted ones seem fine. I wondered if the trained eye might be able to narrow down what the causes might be by looking at the photos below. I've taken some from afar and then some close ups of the tops leaves (at the bottom). I'm hoping an praying that it isn't the beginning of the end for my beloved toms! 
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Happy to take more photos and answer any questions 
Ta
Max
0
Posts
I think thats a calcium deficiency. Im fertilizing with polyhalite aka polysulphate or poly4. It contains sulphur, calcium, magnesium and potassium, then liquid feed for nitrogen and phosphate.
Looking at website below, it could actually be a copper deficiency. Im fairly sure Polyhalite contains copper as a trace element
http://www.haifa-group.com/knowledge_center/crop_guides/tomato/plant_nutrition/nutrient_deficiency_symptoms/#{61CA1AB4-3394-44B0-B560-257A52296FA2}
dont worry about that at all, it's because they are hot and conserving energy, I have one particular strain that do that, as they grow, those leaves straighten out and the next lot out will curl, absolutely nothing to worry about.
When little green tomatoes form, give a feed of Tomorite or similar, anything low on Nitrogen, all that will do is produce lots of green leaves and not flowers.
Dove and I both said this on another thread.
It's the warm weather that causes it.
With warm weather the plants are trying to grow really fast and the leaves look like they're all curling up into themselves. My toms in the g/house are doing exactly the same. They'll unfurl ok.
Nothing to worry about - make sure the plants don't dry out during this hot spell, and the leaves will turnout just fine.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Well, if the last two posts are correct then that's flippin great!!
What I am finding interesting and intriguing is why the potted toms are not doing the same thing, given that most things are the same for all my toms... The two main differences between potted and bedded that I can think of are:
- Water. I think I gave the ones in the beds more water a couple of days ago and was worried I had over done it. I find it a lot easier to judge watering amounts with potted plants. I thought perhaps the leaves responded like that because of too much water.
- Alpaca manure. The bed had some alpaca manure added. The pots didn't. I did read somewhere that the use of contaminated manure can cause leaf curl, and the photo on that page shows leaves which look very similar to mine.
[url=http://mr-tomato-king.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/contaminated-manure-and-compost.html]Mr Tomato King: Contaminated Manure and Compost[/url]
I was also worried it might be that, again - especially because the potted toms are not curling.
Lyn and Pete8 - I'm keeping my fingers tightly crossed that your explanations are right
Thanks for all the help.