New growth on tomato plant tightly curled and spikey-help!

[thardt]

I have 10 tomato plants on a raised bed, plenty of spacing between plants and they get about 7 hours of sun. They are a combination of Big Boy, Better Boy and Early girls. I have one plant, Big Boy, that started out growing "normally". But over the last 2 weeks as new growth has come in the leaves are VERY tightly curled and look very spikey. It is in the middle of the bed and all other plants around it look great. Plant is now about 2 1/2 feet tall, has blossoms, has no signs of blight, yellowing etc.....

Can anyone tell me what is wrong or what to do? Is it a soil issue? We have had quite a bit of rain, but none of the other plants have been impacted.

Grateful for suggestions:):)

[TZ -OH6]

I've had it happen occasionally where the top growth just kind of curls into a tight fist. It seems to be a developmental malfunction. I have uncurled it etc, but if the tissue was too large at that time I still get a problematic ball of twisted plant so it is often easier to just pinch off that point. A new top branch usually forms from the next leaf down and the plant continues on as if nothing happend.

[thardt]

Green thumb,

Thanks for the info. However, most of the plant now looks like this other than the first 2 rows of branches that were a part of the plant when I planted it a few weeks ago. I would have to cut almost the whole plant off to get rid of the "spiky" growth. Thoughts?

[applestar]

Do they look like this? (these are potato plants, but the effect on tomato plants would be similar)
[img]http://www.allotment.org.uk/garden-diary/wp-content/uploads/image/manure-problem/aminopyralid-affected-potato.jpg[/img]
http://www.allotment.org.uk/garden-diary/261/contaminated-manure-aminopyralid-update/

[thardt]

Yes that is exactly what it looks like! Suggestions?

Thanks Applestar

[applestar]

Ah, that is not good news. I suggest you go to the link under the photo and read the details. To sum up, this is due to herbicide used in hay fields (often as pre-planting treatment) passing through the animal (like horses) without being broken down and remaining in the manure. If you used manure to enrich your garden soil, you may be in for a difficult time.

If you do indeed have aminopyralid-affected garden, please let us know what happened. This is a very serious problem and first case I've heard of this year in United States.

[applestar]

I just re-read your original post and you said ONLY one plant is affected. That doesn't sound like the herbicide contamination. Is this a purchased plant? Could it be just in the original soil?

A drastic precaution might be to dig out that plant with plenty of soil around it... but I'm out of my depth on this one.

[Kisal]

There is a virus called Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl that you might want to investigate. Here's a pic of it:

[img]http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/Images/Tomato/Tom_TomYelLfCurl/41A_02.jpg[/img]

[731greener101]

I did my daily peruse of my favorite forum and saw this post.Up till now I was beating myself up for creating some sort of imbalance in one of my gardens.Now I read this post and I am positive my garden bed has this same affliction.I used a mix of 2B potting mix and dark bull(read between the lines).I made up seventy cubic feet of mix at a cost more than $350.00.I am mad as hell.We have rampant corporate bank greed,oil companies that pollute the planet on an unheard of magnitude,and chemical companies that produce poisons on such a wide scale that the impact of environment toxicity levels will be measured by our children's children(maybe this is their plan).It's time we as citizens of this planet do our part to end this abomination.The politicians sleep with those who offend our planet so there is no help forthcoming from them.I think we should start with the education of the masses.Anyone know of organizations to join ?

[TZ -OH6]

Yes, it sounds like a virus so you should pull the plant before aphids etc infect other plants.

Here are some good pics of viral diseases.

http://avrdc.org/LC/tomato/tomato_diseases/index.html

Complaining about herbicides is off topic for this thread, but I would like to say that unlike most arguements against herbicides and pesticides, the use of aminopyralid-like herbicides on hay is having direct tangible effects on organic farmers and home gardeners, so I expect future legislation to force hay growers to inform the buyers of its use (possibly the same for grain farmers since straw is used for mulch). I would not be surprised if a class action suit showed up in the future but I suspect that having organic farmers banding together to promote legislative change would be the way to go.


Gardeners can work with their county extension office to have Dow etc. pay to clean out and replace their contaminated garden soil.

[FarmerD]

Here is a pic.

[img]http://i1009.photobucket.com/albums/af212/donnydribble/photo.jpg[/img]

I already removed all the branches on the other plant but now this one seems to have it.


Do I just scrap em?

/d

[rootsy]

Thrips

[FarmerD]

Ok so... I need mee's a edumacation...


So those 2 plants are the same variety and were in a 40g tub I have setup. I also have another type of plant in there that doesn't look good but doesn't have that problem yet.

Can that spread through the soil plant to plant? Some roma tomatoes I have in a container next to that one were kinda rubbing limbs. Does that mean they are going to get it? So far they don't seem to be affected.


thanks for all your help this is only my second year trying this and I'm still a noob...

/d

[FarmerD]

So does this mean that I can't use the soil that was in that pot?


I pulled all the plants that were in that one so should I toss the dirt too?


thanks
/donny

[Kisal]

You can reuse the soil for something else, as long as the virus was specific to the Solanaceae family, which it probably was. You can't be positive of that, of course, without an official ID by your Extension Service. To be safe, avoid planting eggplants, peppers, petunias, potatoes, tobacco, tomatillos, or tomatoes in that space. Other plants will probably do fine there.