| I've seen MANY postings, this year, from all over the country, with the same symptoms: new growth is twisted and strangely curled....almost cancer/viral-like. In my case, it's my plants in containers, which had sheep manure added to them (too strong?). My plants in the ground (right next to them) are doing just fine (no manure added to inground plants). I've been growing tomatoes for over 30 years, the same way every year, so the manure is nothing new. But this is the first time I've ever seen anything like this happening. I've ripped out & replaced the affected plants, and the same thing happened. No herbicide was used on the property (and why would the ones right next to them be OK???). AND I've planted new ones in other pots, with no manure, and they are fine. It definately seems to be a soil issue, and the manure is the only common factor. My camera is dead, so I can't take more pic's, but here's an old one, from my last post. It's only gotten worse! |
Image link: WTF is this????? (54 k)
| Because it's only the tomatoes with manure, could be clopyralid contamination of the greens the animals ate and which then ends up inthe manure. Clopyralid is an herbicide that's no longer available for home use but can still be used by landscape maintenance folk and farmers. See this about trial with tomatoes
http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/soilmgmt/ClopyrGarden.htm The entire menu
http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/soilmgmt/Clopyralid.htm There, notice the link for a bioassay you can easily do. |
Here is a link that might be useful: clopyralid info from WSU
