Well, your story was very good and it gave me enough information to diagnose your problem. According to everything you tell me I believe your tomatoes are not being affected by a nutritional deficiency, I think they are infected with tomato leaf curl virus, which can cause all the symptoms you describe (obviously the downward leaf curl was an important point!). This is not curable so you may need to sterilize everything and start again with resistant varieties. Hope this helped !

Here is a link that might be useful: Everything Hydroponics

Tomatoes are susceptible to a wide range of diseases, which is a big part of the reason that humans have cultivated so many different hybrid varieties (to create strains resistant to one or more diseases).

Like danielfp says, the best course of action is to change to a resistant variety or to wipe out the disease and start over.

To erradicate something like that you have to take some pretty drastic actions. First, get rid of all the plants you have in the grow room, even if they're not victims of the disease they can carry it.

Get rid of any dirt you have, if you use hydroton or a similar sterile growing media disinfect it with bleach, and use bleach or a similar very strong anti-bacterial/fungicide on everything in the room, including the room itself. I mean EVERYTHING. Pots, tanks, walls, floors, everything.

Start over using only new or freshly disinfected materials and you should hopefully see the end of that problem. Oh, and don't forget to rinse off the bleach from the growing media. Roots don't like bleach.

Just a quick intervention: Before you trash your entire growing effort, you might want to try merely aerating your nutrient solution and also the places where the roots are submerged in water using a standard fish tank air pump and an air stone.

I've successfully grown several cultivars of tomato using the "RAMP" technique, which is completely submerged roots 24/7 -- but each container had its own air stone bubbling away 24/7.

Free oxygen in the nutrient is its own magic!

Hope my suggestion is not too late!

Hey Thanks for the replies, I really appreciate it. Okay, so I am on vaca and only just checked the postings (so the plants are still alive).

My thoughts and updates:

I obviously don't want to have a virus, so I am going to be a little stubborn going down that road. Did I mention I am completely indoor - can I still get the virus?

I did notice that some kind of grass will sua sponte (i.e., on its own) grow out of the medium (perlite/vermiculite). Does this mean its not sterile or my basement is not?

Additionally, I did some more research on account of the drooping stems. I found a scientist who said this:

-not enough o2 in the soil causes anaerobic conditions, which causes the plants to increase ethylene production, which causes epinasty. Epinastic symptoms manifest themselves as drooping stems and leaves - he did not mention curl, but others have.

Also, I noticed some of my baby tom's have the beginning of blossom end rot (which is symptomatic of over-watering, right?).

Freemangreens - I have an airstone in my res, but not in my pvc pipes, is their a way to aerate inside the medium - perlite/vermiculite?

And I feel like a moron asking, but point out how to post photo's and I'll get 'em up.

As always, any insight is appreciated, what fun this is, oh, but like everything, it's an all I can eat buffet for my head.

disinmtl Blossom bottom rot is caused, primarily, by a lack of calcium getting to the fruit. this can be caused by over watering, under watering, and/or a general lack of calcium available.
for directions on how to post images please view the last few posts of theHydroponic Strawberries thread.

"Freemangreens - I have an airstone in my res, but not in my pvc pipes, is their a way to aerate inside the medium - perlite/vermiculite?"

You don't have to aerate using perlite; it's 50% open to the air already. Just keep it moist. I use a moisture meter, but if all else fails, just stick your finger into the perlite and shove it down around the roots. If it feels damp, that's enough.

Perlite lets the roots breathe while allowing them to stay moist, grow and transfer nutrient to the rest of the plant. There is no need to aerate the growing medium unless it is 100% liquid. The fact that you have an air stone in your holding tank is sufficient.

I'm trying a brand new strawberry growing concept this weekend. I'll post the results here and on my Web page this weekend or next week. Stay tuned.

Well there's two reasons to aerate the solution. One is for the plants, and the other is for the health of the solution itself. Aerating the nutrient solution helps prevent the growth of harmful microbes and it should be aerated if for no other reason.

So yes, aerate the reservoir to keep the potential for bad things growing to a minimum. But don't worry about how well it is aerated in the medium. For one thing it takes hours to fully de-gas water, depending on volume.

Regarding the virus question, you can transmit them yourself. Plant viruses can't harm us, but we can carry them on our skin. That's one of the reasons it's important to wash your hands before handling your indoor plants.

A major disease vector for indoor gardens is actually smoking. Smoking can transmit viruses from the tobacco to the skin of the smoker (or directly to the plant if the smoke reaches it). Modern tobacco strains are remarkably hardy and can grow despite many viral infections that would cripple other crops. And since they're not harmful to people, there's no need for the tobacco companies to worry about those viruses entering their product.

Here are my pics, posted on goonies thread, Leaf Curl Pic, since we have the same prob to compare, they like identical. Still my prob continues.

any advice is appreciated.

This is my 2nd attempt to grow 1 cherry plant in my aerogarden 3. The first on was pathetically short at 5 weeks old it looked like it was 2 weeks old.

Aerogrow was kind enough to send me a new seed pod & so far this plant is having trouble too.

This plant was planted January 15, 2009 (which I believe is 7 weeks ago)

Your pics of 7 weeks look alot different than mine as you can see from the pictures. And there is a problem with the leaves! They keep turning brown & drying up.

As you can see, the plant isnt too close to the grow light. Also I am just using the nutrient tabs that AG sent me.

Today I changed the water and found what looks like green algae & mold in the bowl. I cleaned & sanitized it with bleach & used distilled water & a fresh nutrient. I also cut the brown leaves off.

Do u think my problem will be solved? Will this baby recover & finally grow?

Pic 1 http://www.jessijordan.com/aerogarden/img/Img_0691.jpg

Pic 2 http://www.jessijordan.com/aerogarden/img/Img_0692.jpg

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:999250}}

I've had the same problem with tomatoes before - not in an aerogarden. I'm not quite sure what causes it.

The algae is a bad sign though, that's a likely cause. As a side note when you want to prune I recommend breaking the leaves off at the stem. Tomatoes have what's called a compound leaf, each of the flat "leaves" on a common stem are actually just part of one leaf.

Look for a leaf that comes straight off the end of a stem. Follow that stem back until it meets another stem. Everything along that is one "leaf". Break the stem off sideways at the stalk it comes out of. This lessens water loss and stress to the plant.

as you can see, im having a problem..my ph is usally 6-7,my ppm is 1300..60gal tank,bucket system this garden is 4 weeks old.i have rinsed and refilled ..i use chemgro 4-18-38 please help,my plants have lots of blooms,and tom. some are 6ft. tall 3-4 in. a day...