Tomato plant leaves curling inward.

[Signal30]

Why are they doing this? Too much water? Too little? Something else? They seem to be growing, I just don't know why they are doing this. Thoughts?

[TZ -OH6]

Physiological leaf roll happens to many of us each spring. It is usually linked to rainy weather-wet soil, and probably temperature also. It's one of the few deviations from "the perfect plant" that can be ignored.

[Signal30]

Thanks TZ. I am worried that maybe I am watering too much. How often should you water tomato plants? I was told every day.

I have raised beds. I watered all my plants with a hose, but now I am using a sprinkler and I leave it on until a tuna can is 3/4 of the way full of water. It's a occelating sprinkler.

[TZ -OH6]

I forgot one thing. High nitrogen can be a factor too.


I water my tomato garden once a year... The day the plants go in the ground. It helps to know what is under your raised bed to know if and when you need to water. Do you have a hard clay pan a few inches down that prevents roots from getting down to moist subsoil? Do you have drainage problems so that the soil under the raised bed is soggy for long periods so you have to get the plants above that? Do you have good deep soil that lets roots go down and pull moisture from moist subsoil all season long?

[Signal30]

It may be due to high nitrogen. The soil I got from a farmer is a dirt manure mix.

Under the beds is where the previous homeowners had their in ground garden. The area I am using is pretty dry and never had pooling water during the heavy rain we received in April and May. I havent really dug much into the ground where the beds are but if it's like the landscaping soil around my house, it is fairly decent loose soil and you don't hit clay until you dig over 18 inches deep into the ground.

I have no idea how often you are supposed to water anything in my garden. I have been watering every early evening and so far everything looks to be growing ok. I figured since the beds are raised the water drains through rather quickly. I do have weed netting under the beds if that make any difference.

[rainbowgardener]

You are in Cincinnati as am I.

When you say watering every evening, you mean EVERY evening, even if it rained? Since I live here too, I know that we have had a very rainy spring and early summer. We did have a week or so of hot and dry, so I did water my garden once and the pots on my deck a couple extra times, since plants in small pots dry out a lot faster.

But so far I have watered my garden exactly ONCE this season. No need to water when Nature is providing it falling out of the sky.

If the rain stops, water deeply once a week.

[TZ -OH6]

I feel sorry for you guys. I'm a bit northeast of Columbus and almost all of the heavy rain has just missed us all year. We've gotten fairly normal rainfall from being on the edge of the systems.

[gardenbean]

Question for TZ please-Do some tomato plants just naturally have their bottom leaves roll? My Cherkoee Purple has a habit of doing that and so does my Snow White. I'm not messing with either of them as they are growing well and a solid healthy green with developing flowers on them.

But I was just curious as to why some do that and not others. Thank you.

[TZ -OH6]

Are some more susceptible? Probably, I grow a mix of varieties (usually two plants each, separated by some distance) and I don't remember getting groups of several different plants in a row with rolled leaves, but my soil type changes over short distances so I don't know if underground factors differed.

[graham]

My Bloody Butcher plant has been curling upward for a couple weeks--almost all the leaves, where the other 4 plants I have have been normal. The I did notice this morning that one of my two Better Boys' bottom leaves were curling. But we had 4-5 inches of rain yesterday. Floods everywhere. Glad I'm growing in a raised bed--my yard was completely saturated this morning.

[gardenbean]

Tz-About this curling leaf thing. My Snow White is doing wonderful. Strong healthy stem, dark green color on leaves, growing at a impressive height and beginning's of fruit flowers thru out the plant. But out of all of my tomato plants, she is the only one that does this.

My question is this: do some tomato varities "just" have curling leafs " because that is how they were made?

[Patrol_4x4]

I have a cherry tomato plant whose branches are curling inwards... I have read it can be humidity but also stress... After I got rid of the caterpillars and tiny spiders, I think it's doing better. We have also had rainy days with little sun last week, it might have also been a reason.... Anyway, the plant seems to be doing much better, although there is still a couple of curled branches.