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Crooked leaves

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2020 11:59 am
by arnorrian
Some of my seedlings started getting crooked leaves. Should i be worried?

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Two other got limp and drying bottom leaves that fell off easily, and one some weird enlargements of the main leaf vein.

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Re: Crooked leaves

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2020 12:20 pm
by Clkeiper
check for aphids. I have seen leaves curl in response to even a couple little buggers. the top one doesn't look like aphids to me but check just to be certain. otherwise I say probably not an issue.

Re: Crooked leaves

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2020 12:34 pm
by arnorrian
Thanks.

Re: Crooked leaves

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2020 3:14 pm
by MissS
I think that it's too much fertilizer or too dry. Either water them more or re-pot into fresh mix. From the color that I am seeing on my screen, they are so very green that I would bet that it's the fertilizer.

Re: Crooked leaves

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2020 11:25 pm
by arnorrian
The green is more vivid in the picture than in the reality. I water them every other day, and try to keep the substrate moist but not damp. I'm afraid of over-watering. I gave them fertilizer twice so far, not much, I'll lay off of it. Thanks.

Re: Crooked leaves

Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2020 5:03 pm
by edweather
I don't see any huge problem. Are they getting good light to prevent legginess?

Re: Crooked leaves

Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2020 11:40 am
by arnorrian
I think the light is ok, as the plants are not very leggy. I think that the legginess is more down to the crowding than to the lack of light.

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But some plants are dropping their bottom leaves. Not as much as last year when half of them lost all their leaves and died before I could transplant them out. I got three weeks to go.

At least no new crooked leaves.

Re: Crooked leaves

Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2020 12:31 pm
by bower
Unless you find bugs under side of the leaf, I say that is edema. Both the leaf and the stem you described. If you see little blisters raised on the leaf, that is it. Two causes: uneven water and wrong kind/wavelengths of light or not enough UV/high end of the spectrum.
I had this problem with peppers for years and thought it was some kind of insect pest making the blisters. Then one year I moved my tomato seedlings under the LED shoplight (4000 K) after potting up and watering in, and they got it really bad! There is some genetic variance among types, how badly they will be affected. Some veggies (brassicas, lettuce) don't really care about wavelength but tomatoes are extra sensitive. Quite a bit has been written about it.
So if I were you, I'd put them near a window if they can't go outdoors.

Re: Crooked leaves

Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2020 12:33 pm
by bower
Here is one article about edema on tomato, for example:
https://vegcropshotline.org/article/ede ... ootstocks/

Re: Crooked leaves

Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2020 12:41 pm
by arnorrian
My light is 6500K. I water thoroughly every other day, but I don't let the substrate get soggy. There are little blister, but not on the tomatoes, just on one tomatillo plant. I have seen no insects. I had the same problems with bottom leaves going soft and dropping of last year, but under pink grow light. But there was less light, and the plants were much more leggy. As soon as I got them out they recovered.

It should be worm in the coming days, I'll start hardening them off every day. Maybe that will help.

Re: Crooked leaves

Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2020 12:46 pm
by arnorrian
Bower wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 12:33 pm Here is one article about edema on tomato, for example:
https://vegcropshotline.org/article/ede ... ootstocks/
Yes, I have a couple of plants with a mild case of bumps like this. It likely is watering and the lack of air flow. I should have installed some fans on my grow box.

Re: Crooked leaves

Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2020 12:56 pm
by bower
They'll be fine if you can get them outdoors. Yes it is not always the light, it can be air circulation and even the relative humidity in some cases. The other word used for it is "intumescence".
I have to say some of my seedlings were severely stunted that year by the bad case of edema I gave them. :( :oops: They were okay in the end but it took a long time to recover... They were weeks later than expected to fruit. So I will for sure keep mine in the window in future (with fluorescent lights on top).
My peppers got it under fluorescents too, it was kept away from natural light to spare them the 'natural cold'.. not a good tradeoff after all. :evil: But they are not as bothered, maybe because their stems are woody and don't get affected like tomatoes do. They only lost some leaves.