Curly Q tomato plants

[rebecca100]

Okay so I put plenty of compost and rabbit manure in my garden and everything is doing great and growing big and healthy EXCEPT my tomatoes are growing curly balled leaves and spirally branches.

They are planted with compost I made myself from old horse manure and kitchen scraps. I dont really use fertilizer, but did give them a little early in the season right after transplant. They are growing very well and blooming. It is hard to see, but some of the branches and spiralled all the way down like they were pulled out of a hair curler. I have been aware of this for a while, but it never struck me that it was to the extent it was until I started staking them. They were trying to vine along the ground rather than stand up and are kinda leggy. It is only the Golden Jubilees in that spot that are doing this. I am going to try to take a piece in to the county extension office in the morning. I have tried to Google spirally tomato branches, but all I have found as a possible cause is herbicide poisoning. I know this can't be the case, so I am thinking nutrient deficiency, or maybe overload.

 

[Wannabefree]

Try this link. Lots on deficiencies with pictures.

http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/DiagnosticKeys/TomFrt/TomFrtKey.html#Cloudy

Several possibilities in this section.

http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/DiagnosticKeys/TomWlt/TomWiltKey.html

 

[freemotion]

I know it is not good but they look so COOL!!!

 

[rebecca100]

I thought they were kinda cool looking too! Freaky, but cool kinda like a corkscew willow tree.


From that link it looks just like Roundup poisoning. How in the world could Roundup have found it's way into my greenhouse I wonder? I don't use ANY kind of herbicide anywhere and neither do my neighbors that I know of.

 

[Wannabefree]

I thought they were kinda cool looking too! Freaky, but cool kinda like a corkscew willow tree.


From that link it looks just like Roundup poisoning. How in the world could Roundup have found it's way into my greenhouse I wonder? I don't use ANY kind of herbicide anywhere and neither do my neighbors that I know of.

Could it have been in the seeds or plants? Did you use seed or were these bought as plants from a greenhouse?

 

[rebecca100]

I bought seed for those plants. It was only after I planted them and they started to grow good did this start. The others did it briefly including the store bought plants in the topsy turvey baskets, but nothing to this extent. The new growth balled a little at first and then started growing fine. The brandywine and San Marizano never did it at all. The weird thing is that those plants are actually the tallest(or longest I should say since they are trying to vine) of all of them and they were all planted as seed at the same time. I would think poisoning would stunt the growth. Hopefully the county extension agent will be able to help!

 

[rebecca100]

I went to the county ext. office today. The agent that would have to see it wasn't in and wont be until Friday. The person who was there said the sample I brought in looked pretty and green other than the twisty leaves. I'm going to try to keep the piece I broke off in water to that MAYBE I won't have to hunk another chunk off my poor funky tomatos. I guess since they are blooming and growing it shouldn't really matter, but it will be a chance to hopefully learn something if nothing else.

 

[sunsaver]

It looks like root knot nematodes. I get this all the time. it's common in sandy soils, even ones that have been heavily amended. If you pull one up, you should see little knots and wierd looking growths similar to tiny potatos or strings of pearls. You can replant it, and you might get some fruit, but i usually just chuck them in the garbage and completely remove them from the gardern.
There's an organic fix for nematodes, either good bacteria or killer nematodes or something. Not sure what it's called. But the only way to make a positive diagnosis is to pull one up and check the roots.

 

[rebecca100]

Thanks I will try that.

 

[rebecca100]

Okay, do today's been s long day, but I managed to make it to the county extension office with my tomato plants. He said they were quite healthy and showed no signs of disease and that it was not pesticide poisoning. His conclusion was stress of some sort. He said that if they were still growing and blooming good, not to worry about it and they would quit doing this when the stress was removed. Since he told me this I looked it up and found sone state ext website(I don't remember which state) that described a stress condition similar to mine from the plant top growing too quickly for the roots.