Maxy24
Full Member
Posts: 18
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2015 11:13 am
Location: Natick, MA

Curling leaves and pests

I have two tomato plants in containers on my patio that were doing very well. However, all the new growth is now starting to curl and shrivel. This happened last year, but not until the very end of the season and I suspected it was an insect and still do. The question is which one and what can I do about it. Today I just sprayed them down with the hose really well to try and knock them off. I do see aphids clustered in certain spots and I've read they can cause leaves to shrivel up, so it might just be their fault. But there are also a lot of winged insects that appear to be sucking on the plants. Some are quite small and some are bigger so I'm not sure if they are the same thing or not. I got some photos with my phone:

The damage
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Clear insect
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Aphids and company
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20180616_172956.jpg
Flies
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20180616_172633.jpg

imafan26
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Posts: 13962
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

It is windy or hot there. Upward curling young leaves could be physiological leaf curl, especially if you open up the leaves and don't see any pests inside. The other leaves and stems look o.k. with minor damage and a parasitic wasp is on patrol.

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Gary350
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Posts: 7396
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

Curling leaves is often a sign of too much fertilizer.

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rainbowgardener
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Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Or it can be a sign of damage from some kind of herbicide, for example if your neighbor sprayed weed killer and some of it drifted in on the breeze -- those sprays can drift a long way.



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