2024 Tomatoes

I sowed the following varieties on 26th February, with a few non-germinations re-sown during March. Planted out on 5th May.
I’m growing 27 plants at my house and 16 at my father-in-law’s. (MMMM= many of the varieties came from the Mostly Mystery Mater Mailing. Thanks folks)

Returning (20)
Amish Paste (Not true to type)
Barry’s Crazy Cherry
Black beauty
Black Krim
Black Opal
Bloody butcher
Brad’s Atomic Grape
Galina
Girl Girl's Weird Thing (MMMM)
Large Barred Boar
Latah
Maglia Rosa (MMMM)
Mat - Su Express (MMMM)
Paul Robeson
Pervaya Lyubov (MMMM)
Ron’s Carbon Copy (MMMM)
Skykomish
Stupice
Sungold F1
Vladyka (MMMM)

New to me, or a re-grow where plants haven’t had a fair trial (10)
Anna Russian (MMMM)
Cole (MMMM)
Fishlake Oxheart (MMMM)
Jagodka (MMMM)
Malakhitovaya Shatulka (MMMM)
Oaxacan Jewel (MMMM)
Opalka (MMMM)
Polaris (MMMM)
Porkchop
Zapotec x Black Cherry F5 (MMMM)


The first ripe tomato was a bloody butcher harvested on 14th July 2024. Due to our cool summer this year, it seemed to take an age (70 days!)
I was happy with plant health, deep green foliage and lots of blossoms. (see pic)
There is a drip watering system, and I am fertilising, so I thought things were going well. However, this week, (the weather has finally warmed up, so we're getting 20-23 (69/70f) daily highs and 16(60f) overnight) I noticed that the tops of the plants are not happy at all. See pics below. I wonder is this underwatering? Where the plant can't access the nutrients in the compost. The soil in the bags feels pretty dry, so I have increased the watering.
I was waiting for the bottom leaves to start wilting, as a sign I needed to increase the watering, but that didn’t happen, it just seems to be the new growth that is suffering, but they are still setting fruits. Strange! Hopefully there is time for them to recover!
Sungold bottom of plant is happy.
Sungold top of plant is puny.

Plants currently of interest:

Cole / Latah- I am growing these two early determinates side by side in the same container. Latah is an old favourite, Cole was recommended here on TJ, so I am interested to compare earliness, flavour etc. I have tried this trial the past couple of years without much success ( e.g. the seedlings didn’t look healthy enough at planting time to plant) both plants look pretty similar to date. Cole tomatoes are lighter in colour, and this year both were beaten for earliness by bloody butcher!

Interesting tomato lineup, and your Bloody Butchers look great!

In the picture of the top foliage of your Sungold (and also the top foliage in the picture with the variety names), it definitely doesn't look like insufficient water or insufficient fertilizer to me. It looks like distortion from 2,4-D or dicamba, or an aminopyralid/clopyralid herbicide, a mild exposure probably. The 2,4-D or dicamba could come from nearby weed-killing/landscaping/lawn service activity (drift) -- at least in the US, don't know if they're legal for use in the UK. Aminopyralid/clopyralid could be in compost, mulch, straw, manure, organic fertilizers, or any product that contains or is made from those types of ingredients.

Is there any chance the plants have received too much fertilizer rather than too little? A neighbor gardener told me too much fertilizer can cause the same symptoms, but I don't know if he's right -- I don't see much on the internet to support that idea. The other possibility would be broad mites or similar; do you have them in the UK? The symptoms don't look like any of the leaf curl viruses to me.

If the symptoms only recently started, I'd guess that you recently experienced herbicide drift, or that something you added in the last few weeks (fertilizer? compost tea?) is contaminated with herbicide. I think I'd try flushing out a couple of the pots with lots and lots of water, then see if new, undistorted foliage develops above. (Be careful that the runoff doesn't harm any other plants.) Then of course don't use any more of the same fertilizer/compost/manure products that could have caused the problem, without testing them first.

@Seven Bends That's really interesting, I thought it looked weird.... I'll have a think and an investigate about whether fertiliser or possible aminopyrilids are the culprit... hadn't considered that, thank you.