Hi everyone!
I've been struggling with tomato plants that look exactly like this all season. I started my heirloom seeds in February, and raised beautiful, 18" seedlings by late April. I'm doing a variation of 'lasagna method' garden and brought in 20 yards of well composted cow manure which I turned into my raised rows for planting in.
I put my seedlings in this pure manure compost, and waited for what I was sure would be the most amazing harvest ever. Instead, within about two weeks the seedlings started looking curled up at the tops.
Green leaves, nice erect plants, just weird culred up leaves at the top and branches that pointed down, but not limp, very solid.
Finally in mid May, I was so frustrated, I went and bought 20 new, healthy looking heirloom seedlings from a local guy, pulled all but one of the plants, and since my mother in law was sure the manure compost was burning the roots, I dug out about a 5 gallon bucket sized hole replaced it with good topsoil, and planted my new seedlings in that.
Now, about three weeks later, all the new plants look just the same.
My peppers and eggplants also have curled leaves and weird, miniature new growth on the tops. Everything else looks great, the squach (5 varieties) melons, okra etc all look great.
So, I finally figured it out. Aminopyralid toxicity.
Apparently, this is an ingredient in some broadleaf herbicides. Dairy and cattle farmers sometimes spray their fields with a broadleaf herbicide. If that herbicide contians 'Aminopyralid', it will not break down or process out in the cows digestive tract , but rather remains intact and effective in their manure.
This herbicide only effects certain plants, Tomatoes and peppers being primary.
If you google 'Aminopyralid tomato' in images, you will find dozens of pictures with exactly the same weird looking curly q leaves and branches, but note that the plants are otherwize healthy, green, upright etc.
Apparently, the plants will not die from this toxicity, just grow stunted and strange and produce little or no fruit. Well, its too late in the season for me to start over with new plants and I hate to just give up and get no tomatoes. These plants are otherwise very healthy looking , green plants.
So, today I'm going to dig new holes in uncontaminated soil, carefully dig up my tomatoes, fully rinse the soil off the roots in a 32 gallon trash barrel 'bath' , treat the roots with another bath in seaweed emulsion and replant them in their new clean, well amended holes.
I'll repost here in about 3 weeks and update if this works or not to save the plants.
I've been struggling with tomato plants that look exactly like this all season. I started my heirloom seeds in February, and raised beautiful, 18" seedlings by late April. I'm doing a variation of 'lasagna method' garden and brought in 20 yards of well composted cow manure which I turned into my raised rows for planting in.
I put my seedlings in this pure manure compost, and waited for what I was sure would be the most amazing harvest ever. Instead, within about two weeks the seedlings started looking curled up at the tops.
Green leaves, nice erect plants, just weird culred up leaves at the top and branches that pointed down, but not limp, very solid.
Finally in mid May, I was so frustrated, I went and bought 20 new, healthy looking heirloom seedlings from a local guy, pulled all but one of the plants, and since my mother in law was sure the manure compost was burning the roots, I dug out about a 5 gallon bucket sized hole replaced it with good topsoil, and planted my new seedlings in that.
Now, about three weeks later, all the new plants look just the same.
My peppers and eggplants also have curled leaves and weird, miniature new growth on the tops. Everything else looks great, the squach (5 varieties) melons, okra etc all look great.
So, I finally figured it out. Aminopyralid toxicity.
Apparently, this is an ingredient in some broadleaf herbicides. Dairy and cattle farmers sometimes spray their fields with a broadleaf herbicide. If that herbicide contians 'Aminopyralid', it will not break down or process out in the cows digestive tract , but rather remains intact and effective in their manure.
This herbicide only effects certain plants, Tomatoes and peppers being primary.
If you google 'Aminopyralid tomato' in images, you will find dozens of pictures with exactly the same weird looking curly q leaves and branches, but note that the plants are otherwize healthy, green, upright etc.
Apparently, the plants will not die from this toxicity, just grow stunted and strange and produce little or no fruit. Well, its too late in the season for me to start over with new plants and I hate to just give up and get no tomatoes. These plants are otherwise very healthy looking , green plants.
So, today I'm going to dig new holes in uncontaminated soil, carefully dig up my tomatoes, fully rinse the soil off the roots in a 32 gallon trash barrel 'bath' , treat the roots with another bath in seaweed emulsion and replant them in their new clean, well amended holes.
I'll repost here in about 3 weeks and update if this works or not to save the plants.
I've never heard of this before. Very interesting. I never import organic matter, with the exception of freshly felled leaves from my neighbor's yard. He never does anything to his yard except mow it, after it gets waist high. So I'm positive that my garden is 100% organic for the last 10 years, and completely free of pesticides. If i get curly tomatoes, it's always from nematodes. It helps to rotate crops, but in small organic gardens with mixed plantings that can be difficult. Planting winter rye grass, and tilling it in one month before planting can increase the beneficial bacteria and fungi that control parasitic nematodes. Of course, i use the no-till method to keep my earth worms alive, and unfortunately, a few parasitic nematodes as well! 
