Roma tomatoe leaves look shriveled, curled, and dwarfed ! :(

[charyan]

I recently planted 3 tomatoe plants (2 romas and a big boy variety). The romas are planted at the ends and the the big boy planted between the romas. It's been several weeks now that the leaves are dwarfing and curling inwards. They bear fruits but I'm concerned that this disease may inhibit further growth or poor fruit quality. I've googled high and low but have concluded that it might be Glyphosate Damage to the leaves from herbicides. I must admit that I have used weed-be-gone the past (few months ago) on surrounding areas but how does that explain it's effect on the romas but not the big boy variety? This is just killing me. I've had the same poor results last year too (same leaf appearance)!

Your help is much appreciated!

Cheers,
Ryan

[img]https://picasaweb.google.com/ryanldds/TomatoePlant?feat=directlink[/img]

[applestar]

Sorry no one has answered your post. I'm an organic gardening proponent, but, setting aside the wrist-slapping for the moment how are the Romas doing now? Sometimes, problems are temporary. If the plants are otherwise healthy, you might not have anything to worry about. It could even be a varietal difference.

I have a row of Sugar Plum grape tomato, Lynn's Mahogany Garnet tomato, Corn, Lynn's Mahogany Garnet, and Sugar Plum. The area can get a bit water logged with heavy clay soil. Even though SPG's are perfectly fine, LMG's leaves are all curled down and I've been worrying about it, thinking it's the excess moisture. HOWEVER, they are all growing very well, no yellowing and not even a speck or spot on the lower leaves even though I'm violating the prune off the lower leaves rule. I've decided to just forget about it and concentrate on getting the tomato supports built.

If you're still having problems, post more photos. Maybe someone else will have a better idea.

[57ChevyChick]

Ryan....that looks like a fungus problem to me from maybe too much rain....I always have this problem with romas especially....What I do is carefully cut off affected branches...don't compost them....dispose of them away from your garden.....buy a fungicide and spray and do this every 7-10 days.....Are the leaves curled up on the bottom branches....this fungus disease startes at the bottom of the plant and goes up....I've had to do this with my plants this week also....I normally don't like to use anything like this but you do what you have to do....My understanding of this is that it is a soil bearing disease.....I'm still getting info on this.....You might want to take a branch into your local nursury and ask them what do they think it is and what you should do....Post what you find out if you do that...good luck.....

[applestar]

Oh really?! Well, if it's a fungal problem, I might be averting the demise of my plants because I've been spraying with 10% milk solution -- it's been mentioned in several places on the forum, but basically it's 1 part milk to 10 part water. Links to research has been posted that it's effective for preventing all the usual fungal suspects like blight, powdery mildew, black spot, etc.

[57ChevyChick]

Interesting ! I haven't been keeping up on the info on the forum....Is this regular whole milk you're using? Ryan's plants seems be looking healthy....no turning yellow, spots......So maybe this is something else...I know my problem is the fungus because it always starts at the bottom of the plants, leaves curl then a few days later start seeing spots and the yellowing begins...eventually the whole branch dies......If there is a organic way to treat this I'm all for it.....I just want to stop this fungus in it's tracks.......I have this problem just about every year.....This spring I dug out holes about 2 by 2 ft...about 18 in. deep.. ....where I was going to plant each tomato plant....removed all dirt...replaced with compost etc.....thinking this would solve this fungus problem or whatever it is....Still got it but it hasn't been as bad as in the past....I also put down newspapers and straw on my entire garden, 40 x 40, so during heavy rain there shouldn't be any splattering dirt up on the plants.....We've had alot of rain and still more coming......Have a good day

[pepper4]

I have also used the milk/water mixture on my tomatoes and I haven't had any problems. I used 2 % milk but I don't know that it matters. Read you can also use sour cream or even yogurt. Mixture would be 10 to 1 as Applestar stated. I also used it on my neighbors plants she gave up on. That with alittle lime did wonders for them. It looks like they're going to survive