Black From Tula, Stunted/Small Leaves?

13 years ago

Hi -- I have 11 tomato plants, 6 in the ground and 5 in containers. They were all planted between March 15 and April 10. They all seem to be doing well (although this is only my second year planting tomatoes...), but something seems to be wrong with my Black From Tula plant. I am so worried it has some sort of disease that I am thinking about getting rid of it ASAP. Should I?

Pics are below. While my other plants are growing well, this one seems stunted, thin, wispy with super small leaves. It has two tomatoes, but neither seem to be growing. It was my first to be planted (March 15).

I have it in Dr. Earth's potting mix with a few handfuls of compost. Since planting I have fertilized it 2 times with Dr. Earth's tomato/vegetable fertilizer. It was a cool, rainy spring here (Los Angeles), and the plant has been watered once/twice a week -- either from the rain or my hose.

Gnats have been a problem, and there seem to be tons in this plant in particular. Are they eating away at the roots? Killing my plant? Or, do I have something more serious? Last year I had a mystery virus/disease/insect that slowly killed my plants, so this year I'm not messing around!

Any advice/recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

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Comments (3)

loribee2
13 years ago
Ironic that I'm having a similar problem with all my tomatoes right now, and I've been doing some heavy internet searching on the subject. You might have a mild form of tomato leaf roll. Here is some information I found on the subject:

http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/PNW616/PNW616.pdf
http://gardenline.usask.ca/pests/tomato.html
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_causes_leaf_curl_on_tomato_plants

It seems to have a bunch of causes and comes in several forms, but maybe something in the articles will resonate with you. What's most curious is that it's only happening with one plant. Could be the variety is more temperamental than others. Or could this plant have been exposed to some sort of herbicide drift where the others did not?
miesenbacher
13 years ago
It could be stress and then again it may not be BFT. Reason being I have seen foliage like this associated with Heart varieties. One that comes to mind was Brads Black Heart. Ami
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melissaca_gw
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for the feedback! Interesting suggestion that it may not be BFT, I haven't considered that. I do have one heart variety (Anna Russian), but it is quite vigorous. Could be leaf roll, or one of the many other afflictions that look just like leaf roll :-(

The one thing that bothers me is that the two tomatoes it has produced so far are still quite small and not growing any bigger. All other blooms are falling off, even though weather is perfect.

Any other thoughts are welcome...!