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Leaf and stem curl on tomatoes - Weed killer or too much food?

TobykeaneTobykeane Posts: 47
in Fruit & veg
My tomatoes have been growing at quite a rate and from a bit of a leggy start in the pot when I have transplanted the stems have got super chunky and the stems of the leaves are curling back on them selves. Also, the very top of the plant has gone really bushy and seems to be a bit stunted. I have had a similar problem before but that was due to weed killer I used to close to my plants last year and it got caught on the wind and infected them. I haven't used any weed killer this year and this time it seems to be a bit different. I gave them quite a bit of feed (possibly too much!) would this possibly cause the results I am seeing? It only really seems to be on a few plants and the rest in the bed are more or less fine apart from a lot of early leaf curl but I think that was down to early climate pressure with all the cold and the wind. Any advice welcome! Thanks


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  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited July 2020
    Don’t think there’s anything majorly amiss ... the very lush growth could be due to too much feed if you’ve been feeding indiscriminately. Tomatoes don’t actually need a lot of feed if they’re in decent compost.  

    The last photo shows possible fasciation which would be due to damage to the growing tip ... IIRC you did put them out incredibly early so the growing tip mag have suffered some weather damage. 
    This thread explains more
    https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/388011/fascinated-by-fasciation/p1. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • TobykeaneTobykeane Posts: 47
    Dovefromabove said:
    Don’t think there’s anything majorly amiss ... the very lush growth could be due to too much feed if you’ve been feeding indiscriminately. Tomatoes don’t actually need a lot of feed if they’re in decent compost.  

    The last photo shows possible fasciation which would be due to damage to the growing tip ... IIRC you did put them out incredibly early so the growing tip mag have suffered some weather damage. 
    This thread explains more
    https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/388011/fascinated-by-fasciation/p1. 
    Great, thanks for this! Yes I think I over fed them. I have an automatic drip irrigation system coming from a water but and I thought it would be a great idea to but the remnants of a bottle of seaweed fertiliser in with the barrel. In hind sight I think it was too much as that is when the problem started to occur. The water butt also started to absolutely stink in the hot weather we had a while back at the beginning of Summer so ended up emptying it out it was so bad. Have now gone back to plain water. I also placed quite a lot of crushed/pulveriesed egg shells into the holes I dug in the raised beds as I read somewhere that was a good Idea for calcium. The compost in the beds is super fresh and quality that I ordered in a ton bag of. Also, under the compost to raise the beds up a bit, I put a lot of half rotten leaf manure from garden. Was concerned that might have something to do with it?
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    When they start to fruit, if they haven’t already, you could remove the lower leaves below the first truss to avoid them getting splashed and to improve air flow around the plants. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





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