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fadedrunes

Tomato leaves curling/wilting with some tan/brown spots

fadedrunes
9 years ago

Greetings! First time gardener here with a question about the health of my tomato plants. My tomato plants are the Glacier Ultra-Early variety from Territorial Seed Co. They are planted in a raised bed with a floating row cover that has been opened only during hotter days or to allow bees access for pollination. The only other type of plant growing with them is three basil plants.

A few weeks ago, my tomato plants were just starting to flower and I applied a compost mulch over my drip irrigation system (I realize now that the compost was not 100% finished but very close). Not too long after I noticed the leaves of my tomato plants started curling from the top and turning a paler green. Thinking they were just wilting at first, I tried changing the water application from every 48 hours for 1 hr to every 24 hours for 30 min (I realize the change in the amount of water applied may be negligent here). After a week of this, the plants remained the same.

Last week I fertilized the plants with a mixture of DTE All Purpose (4-6-2) and DTE Seabird Guano (1-10-0) to promote flowering, using a measurement that was recommended on the box. However, I was in a hurry so did not peel the compost back prior to fertilizing and just poured the fertilizer over the top; I assumed I could wash any fertilizer off the leaves and water it through the compost and into the dirt. I watered in the fertilizer from above with a spray hose (skipping a day of drip irrigation) in the evening. The next day was fairly hot and I noticed that the tips of some of the leaves had tan spots on them, which I assumed was sunscald (as in the water droplets didn't completely dry up during the night due to the floating row cover).

It's been about a week since fertilizing and I'm now noticing some brown spots on more of the leaves and the curling/wilting effect on leaves lower down the plant. The flowers have gone away and there have not been any new flowers since. I can't tell whether new growth has been affected or not since growing has slowed and I've adjusted the watering back to every 48 hours for 1 hr. I've scoured the internet for some answers but I'm afraid I'm just not savvy enough to identify what's going on. Is it herbicide damage from next door neighbors? Sunscald with watering issues? Fertilizer burn? A more serious disease?

I'm attaching a photo of one of the damaged areas in case it's helpful. Please feel free to ask any further information and/or photos of the plants. Thanks in advance for your help!

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