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| Hi,
All my 17 other varieties are giving me no trouble... and then there is my Sophie's Choice. As I've mentioned before, the leaves are just curling a bit every which way, but now I noticed that one of the plant has the top curled more than 360 degrees. The plant is about a foot tall, maybe a little taller. Has anyone seen this before? 
Some leaves are tightly caught in the twist. What the heck is going on? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| cleo I can't tell you what's going on, but I am really beginning to wonder if the unusually overcast and cloudy skies with frequent rains are confusing some plants. My area of the country has not seen this weather pattern go on for so long during the time I've lived here, And I had a plant that had its upper leaves and growing tip make tight fist-like growth. Eventually I removed it believing it would never recover. The leaves on yours appear to be curling horizontally, right? So the bottom of the leaf faces upward as it turns? We do know that leaf-curling is usually related to environmental stress of some kind, so that's why I'm wondering if the weather is causing some very odd effects. At any rate, probably all you can do is wait for the weather to stabilize and see if the plant begins growing normally again. |
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| As with the curling leaves it is just a sign of stress factors and it eventually straightens out with no permanent harm or damage as the plant adapts to the stress. So as anney said if weather is the problem, not much you can do. If one of the many other stress factors is the cause try to ID and eliminate it. I noticed in one of your other posts that it looks like cedar mulch on the containers, right? If so you might want to pull it back from the around the base of the plant. Wood mulches can cause stem damage and rot if in direct contact with it. Dave |
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| "I noticed in one of your other posts that it looks like cedar mulch on the containers, right? If so you might want to pull it back from the around the base of the plant. Wood mulches can cause stem damage and rot if in direct contact with it." Dave
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| Dave, Thanks for all info. I actually never have the mulch touch the stem (except in my hanging basket, which I am going to go fix now!) because I have found that mulch can have sort of a rain barrier effect, so I leave a space around the stem and usually around the edge of the container too, to let water in. Plus, I have my handy toilet paper roll cutworm protector in there, which I push into the dirt, so the mulch goes outside of that. Anney, our weather in Mass has actually been pretty great, I think - mostly sunny, 70s during the day, 55 at night. I have had to water a couple times, since there hasn't been any deep rains in a while. I have two other Sophies and I am looking to see if they will have this same issue. I guess I am just glad that no one has responded, "Oh Cleo, looks like you have the dreaded Early Wilt/Septofungus/Powdery Crud - pull it before it infects all your others!!!" |
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| the dreaded Early Wilt/Septofungus/Powdery Crud Yeah unfortunately some horrible disease is the first thing that comes to mind for many when there is something unusual about their plant. Truth is that 90% of the time it is either environmental stress of some kind or something the gardener has done to the plant instead. And there is no need for cutworm collars in containers, just in-ground. ;) No cutworms in container mix. Dave |
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| I filled my containers with extra compost I had, so perhaps I did need the collars? Not sure how thick a stem has to be before you can remove them?... |
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- Posted by missingtheobvious Blue Ridge 7a (My Page) on Sun, Jun 7, 09 at 21:41
| I'm going to disagree about stress as the cause. To me it looks from the photos as if that's an abnormally thick leaf stem. Are the others so thick? Are any of the other leaf stems curled like that? If that's the only curled stem, and it's also the only thick stem, I think the two are related. You know how some tomato blossoms are doubled, extra-large, or otherwise large and misshapen? Well, I think that's what happened with that leaf stem. Something went wrong with some cells when that stem was being formed, and it's grown abnormally. As to why the curl, maybe it's like curly hair? Straight hair is round in cross-section; curly hair is flat in cross-section. If the leaf stem is extra-wide (flatter than other leaf stems), maybe that's why it curls. Depending exactly where the growth mistake began, it might affect only that leaf, or the entire plant from whatever point the mistake occurred. A couple of years ago, I had a dandelion with a 1" wide (flat) stem, and an even wider (flat) flower atop it. A botanist would have a technical term for it. |
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| Missing..., You're thinking of Fasciation. Remy |
Here is a link that might be useful: Fascinating Fasciation
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- Posted by missingtheobvious Blue Ridge 7a (My Page) on Sun, Jun 7, 09 at 23:16
| Thanks, Remy. Good photos at that link. Caused by hormones, it says. |
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- Posted by johnnygarden 60565 (My Page) on Sun, Jun 7, 09 at 23:18
| I think the growing tip curling is pretty normal on some tomato varieties. If it was enviornmental/weather/chemical, all of your tomato plants would show the same symptoms, at least the neighbors would. I have 10 tomato plants in pots, all the same size, all the same color, all the same location, all the same potting mix, the same weather, same water, etc., but one plant has the growing tip identical to yours...it ended up being contrained by other tomatoes next to it and could grow no direction except down...maybe there is an obstruction. Also, I might add that some of my tomato plants have the main leaf steam (not the growing stems) start to point downward as if they are a back hoe with supports. Just the way some plants grow. |
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| A lot of my growing tips were doing that a month or so again. Now they are all perfectly normal. I agree with Dave, some sort of environmental stress. I'd bet they work themselves out Brian |
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- Posted by missingtheobvious Blue Ridge 7a (My Page) on Mon, Jun 8, 09 at 1:03
| It's not the growing tip that's curling: it's a leaf branch that's curling. Note the leaflets branching off of it -- leaflets would not be growing directly out of a stem. So what's curling has to be a leaf branch rather than the plant's main stem or one of the suckers. At the top of the first picture, the growing tip is immediately to the right of the stake. You can see a couple of flower buds to the right of the growing tip's stem. In the second picture, you can also see a couple of buds above (and separate from) the curling leaf branch. |
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| are you feeding these plants? if So what are you feeding I'm not an expert by any measure to to me it looks like your potassium and or calcium is out of ratio (they compete for the same sites, and both cause curling when deficient from my understanding)do you know the composition of your potting mix? |
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- Posted by woodspryte_farm 5 (My Page) on Tue, Jun 9, 09 at 20:37
| I am having the same problem. started with only 1 plant and now have 3 and looks like a 4th starting. Only stress I can think of is putting the sprinkler in the hoop house. they are NOT mulched and i use tomatoe blast fertalizer and egg shell water. I water OFTEN. plus the humidity is usually very high, and is like a tropical rain forest. when the wind blows it rains on the plants, but not enough to keep them wet. I am concerned with the well fair of the plants now. If someone can tell me how to add a photo to the post I will gladly add them. My plants are ALOT worse than the ones shown. |
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| damonb, I cringe to say this because I know someone is going to jump on me, but all my containers and half my in-ground plants are planted in pure compost, which I have been told is made of soup, cranberries and emu poop. Seriously. In my defense, all my plants planted in this stuff are doing incredibly well, except Sophie's Choice, and really it is only one of my two containered Sophies. My third Sophie is in the ground and has no problems, but both my containered Sophies have leaf curling and one has this stem curling. So I think it's hard to argue that the curling is related to the compost, except perhaps that the Sophie variety may be having a bad reaction to the compost. I did move the curled part a bit to take the picture - it's possible that the stake was somehow interfering with the growth, but it wasn't clear. I have not fed any of my plants anything until a couple of days ago, where I gave my containers 1/2 strength Miracle Gro tomato food. I think I took the picture before I did the MG. I appreciate all the advice and also just hearing from other people who are having this problem. |
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| I have a 6 foot serviceberry, transplanted last year, whose leaf stem is curled, and whose leaf population is sparse. What is the cause? |
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- Posted by missingtheobvious Blue Ridge 7a (My Page) on Mon, Aug 10, 09 at 13:50
| I have a 6 foot serviceberry greyfox, you'll probably get more responses by starting a thread on the Fruit & Orchards, Trees, or Shrubs forums. |
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| other potential herbicide drift can cause this and be hit or miss also a virus that isnt so rare on some plants but is rare on tomato called aster yellows (leads to the fasciation or witches brooming effects). This disease is random in its expression as it will be brought in on leafhoopers so will be hit or miss.
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- Posted by Eetrey 10b(Eetrey@hotmail.com) onWed, Apr 27, 11 at 14:15
| I had this happen to my all container transplants in march during a heat spell where temperatures soared above 100F (not typical around these parts). From what I am reading here, it is reasonable to assume that whacky weather may cause this condition. |
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| I know this post is rather old, but I wanted to give everybody some peace of mind regarding this subject. I have seen this pop up on forum's and message-boards quite a lot without anyone giving the correct reason. Which is: - ) It's not something to worry about too much, because: - ) There is an abundance of sugars being produced during the photosynthesis period (during the day). So the plant has too much energy. Reasons could be that during the night the temperature is quite low, so the energy can't be optimally used to produce more roots. You could try and give some shade to the tomatoplants. Or if you are an indoor grower, you could try to raise the night temperature. Either way, it's not something to worry about too much and it will go away as soon as fruiting begins (when the plant is using a lot more energy.) Hope that helps :) |
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