Sudden stunted growth with tiny curled up foliage.

[WindPhoenix]

I started my Super Sweet 100 tomatoes 2 months ago and they were growing well for a month and a half. Suddenly the new growth has tiny leaves and they are tightly curled up. The bottom 2/3 of the plant has thick foliage but the top 1/3 is almost all stem and flower clusters.

Furthermore suckers have started emerging in the middle of the lower leaves instead of growing from the "armpits" of the plants. Does anyone know what is happening to my plants? The few tomatoes that have formed are elongated instead of spherical.

20220526_074047.jpg

[slugworth]

Look at the plants in the blocks

[patihum]

Unless you're seeing other garden plants showing signs like this that would indicate herbicide drift I'd say the tomato plants have curly top virus.

Any chance that you've just recently added the mulch? If so there's a possibility that the mulch had herbicide residue on it.

[WindPhoenix]

@slugworth: the plants in the blocks were originally growing on this side of the wall and over to the other side. I cut them on this side to have room to grow my garden and the other side just dried up.

@patihum: the mulch was already used last year with no effect on my plants. It had been there prior to transplanting the tomato seedlings 2 months ago and they grew well until the last 2 weeks. I'm gonna read up on the curly top virus. Thanks :/

If other people can chime in, that would be greatly welcomed.

[jmsieglaff]

I don’t have experience with curly top virus, but looking at that some online, I believe it looks like herbicide damage, if so the plants will not recover. What surrounds your garden—any possibility someone nearby was applying a spray herbicide on a windy day?

[bower]

I just squashed a bunch of aphids that were making my tomato leaves go all curly. But those leaves were more or less curled and corkscrewed the opposite way, compared to those in the picture, which are "cupped".
Here is a useful page that distinguishes physiological causes (aka tomato crankiness) from virus and herbicide:
https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/toma ... s-rolling/
According to this, new growth that is "cupped" is typical of virus infection, while herbicide affected leaves "roll downward". They also say that new growth on herbicide affected plants can be normal. On that basis, judging from your pics, I would guess virus has affected your plants.

[WindPhoenix]

@jmsieglaff In the back of my garden there's an abandoned railroad track with a mall on the other side. My direct neighbors have bare yards so they wouldn't be spraying herbicide. It could be neighbors farther away.

@Bower Thank you for the link. It seems that I have physiological leaf roll probably and curly top virus. Do you think I could pull those plants out and put new ones in? Soil-borne virus isn't an issue, right?

[zeuspaul]

@WindPhoenix you learn fast It didn't take you long to figure out how mention works.

[bower]

@WindPhoenix the curly top virus isn't soilborne, so it's okay to pull the plants and replant with fresh ones.
https://aces.nmsu.edu/ces/yard/1999/080299.html
They say it's safe to compost the plants as well, but IDK if you are 100% certain it isn't herbicide, otherwise that might persist.
Also they said it is spread by leafhoppers. So if you have any host plants for them and a population present, you could end up with the same problem if you replant without addressing that issue.

[WindPhoenix]

@Bower Thanks for the tips. I've been looking around the yard and didn't notice any leafhoppers. I read online that they migrate.. they might have passed through my area and left? I read I could cover the plants with a fine mesh.

[WindPhoenix]

@Bower Before I knew what the issue was, I took some cuttings that grew from the middle of lower leaves and put them in water to root. They look normal and the leaves aren't curled up.

Do you think I can use those to regrow my tomatoes or the virus is already embedded in the cuttings and they will eventually show curling and deformity?

[Setec Astronomy]

@jmsieglaff In the back of my garden there's an abandoned railroad track with a mall on the other side. My direct neighbors have bare yards so they wouldn't be spraying herbicide. It could be neighbors farther away.

Just playing Devil's Advocate here, do your neighbors have bare yards because they use weed killer? Also abandoned railroad tracks and mall parking lots also seem like prime places to use weed killer. Just sayin'.

[WindPhoenix]

@Setec Astronomy "Too Many Secrets"..Nice username..

My neighbors' yards are just concrete slabs with swimming pools and no plants.

[Setec Astronomy]

My neighbors' yards are just concrete slabs with swimming pools and no plants.

But aren't those precisely the kind of neighbors who would use weed killer? Or the pool maint. people, landscapers? When weeds start growing up through cracks or joints in the concrete? If there's no plants, they don't have to worry about overspray or drift...only you do.

[WindPhoenix]

@Setec Astronomy That's a possibility. If the plants have herbicide damage, are they done for?

[mama_lor]

It really does not look like a virus. Herbicide is like 97^% chance. Sometimes odd nutrition problems will make somewhat similar problems but not of this magnitude. In the first picture I see a lower sucker growing that seems to look fine. Just cut the affected parts and wait for new normal growth.

[bower]

@Bower Before I knew what the issue was, I took some cuttings that grew from the middle of lower leaves and put them in water to root. They look normal and the leaves aren't curled up.

Do you think I can use those to regrow my tomatoes or the virus is already embedded in the cuttings and they will eventually show curling and deformity?

If the new growth is coming on normally, that's a positive sign that it was caused by herbicides not by virus. They certainly said that virus would produce curling on new growth. So I would take the normal new growth as a defining fact in the case, and proceed with the conclusion that it was caused by herbicide.
In fact, taking cuttings and trying to regrow them was an excellent test to distinguish between the two.