Issues with tomato plant: leaf curl and black spots

[Cranraspberry]

Any ideas as to what this could be? Am I correct that the best way to go is to pull the plant now? None of my other tomatoes are showing any signs of disease yet, but this Beauty King got off to a rough start and only seems to be getting worse.

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[Cranraspberry]

Looking at the purple veins on the new leaves and adding in that there were beets growing right next to this plant I’m going with curly top virus.
Removed the plant, bought a cute little Pineapple start to go in its place and will never plant beets near tomatoes again!

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Also thought you’d appreciate that the disease specialist at our local nursery diagnosed septoria and tried to sell me some mancozeb.

[svalli]

I am not expert on tomato viruses, but are those black spots sign of the curly top or is it TSWV? 2018 I had similar spots on two plants and it was identified as TSWV in Tomatoville. That year I had purchased verbena cuttings and in spring kept those next to my tomato plants in the greenhouse. Later I noticed thrips in the verbenas, so those must have spread the virus to the tomatoes.

I was scanning through your photos for thrips, but could not see any. One of your photos shows what looks like a winged aphid and some other a bit bigger insect, which looks like a parasitic Aphidius wasp. I do not know if aphids spread TSWV, but whatever virus it is, it could have been spread by the insects.

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[Cranraspberry]

@svalli that’s a good question! The beets in the same bed made me think CTV so I didn’t research TSWV much. I found one link from Colorado State with the following information:

Symptoms of tomato spotted wilt, caused by a virus spread by thrips, can be confused with curly top symptoms. The upper young leaves of tomato plants infected by tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) bronze and develop small dark spots or flecks. Curly top infected plants do not exhibit spots or flecks on the foliage. TSWV is responsible for the distinctive concentric rings seen on green and red fruit. The same conditions responsible for the movement of beet leafhoppers into tomato fields are also responsible for the increase in TSWV problems.

On the one hand, my dark spots were only on a couple of older leaves, not on the new growth like in the description. Did you have dark spots on the young leaves too? On the other hand after seeing TSWV fruit photos I now suspect that’s what one of our Brandywines had last year (interestingly it was planted in almost the same spot, but no beets then). It was our first year at the community garden and we thought it was just badly stunted since it kinda sorta continued growing and fruiting all season long, but it was very small and none of the fruit were edible.

[svalli]

On the one hand, my dark spots were only on a couple of older leaves, not on the new growth like in the description. Did you have dark spots on the young leaves too?

I found photos from those plants and there were spots on new leaves also.

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[Cranraspberry]

@svalli thank you for the photo! I’m pretty sure that’s what we had last year and thinking back it probably eventually got the peppers too. Fortunately even though we foolishly kept the Brandywine plant it didn’t spread to the other tomatoes. No worries though, the fusarium got the ones the virus didn’t. What a fun hobby this is.

[bower]

That TSWV looks awful. Insect vectors are a huge PIA.
There is so much anxiety currently about the Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit virus, that I think it should be easy to get a free test for tobamovirus from the local officials in the USA if you see any recurrence of curling symptoms on new leaves. I believe the page at Cornell gives instructions where to ask for a test. All of the viruses in the tobamovirus group have similar symptoms affecting the new growth. Not even to mention that physiological disorders including herbicide residue damages, beet curly top virus and maybe others also look the same. And honestly, it seems to me it is part of the tomato nature to curl its leaves in response to various stresses. The difference is, that curling is temporary and they straighten out when the problem is resolved. Everything from wet feet, something nibbling my roots, aphids or mites are nibbling my leaves, it's too cold for my buds, it's too dark here, etc etc. Tomatoes are 'leaf talkers' and it's how they say something is bothering them. When you get the etiolated stringy leaves that's different for sure and narrows it down to virus or herbicide. But there are lots of 'virus' pictures that don't look especially different.
A big concern with the ToBRFV is that it is very persistent in the environment including the soil, not only on the plant material. This is also true of other tobamovirus to some extent. I mention that because you had a sick plant in the same spot last season. Since you replaced this one with a healthy plant, keep an eye out for a recurrence on the new plant. Hopefully not, fingers crossed!!
Another thought about the 'bad spot' - I have wireworms here and recently reading that they move very little maybe a meter of distance in their whole life cycle of 6-7 years, except up and down in the soil. So I imagine a bad spot could be where some long lived pest like this went undetected and returned to feed on the roots again the next year. So that might be another possibility, in which case you might trap the pest in the off season and reclaim a good space.

[Cranraspberry]

@Bower they are truly horrible. I thought dealing with fusarium was bad enough, but there’s always something else isn’t there.

By the way because of our fusarium issues last year I built new beds over the winter and filled them with brand new soil. I’m able to pretty much rule out herbicide issues because I “bean tested” every batch that went in, and I also know all our plot neighbors and can guarantee with 99.99% certainty that they would not be using any kind of herbicide.

The only other plant I have some concerns about is this Moreton. No spots, yellowing or purple veins, but he’s a bit shorter than all the other tomatoes and the new growth seems kind of wispy. He’s on the opposite end of the plot and there were no beets in that area. It’s tricky to take a picture of anything given how cramped our plot is, but here he is. Hopefully it’s just my imagination acting up.

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[bower]

Moreton looks pretty perfect to me! Probably just the traits of the individual or the variety, adapting to its environment a bit less vigorously than the others.

[Cranraspberry]

Fingers crossed! All the other tomatoes are one “cage ring” taller than the Moreton, but hopefully no more losses.

I found my notes from last year - I only started taking them at the end of May, but by then the Brandywine was already dubbed “sad Brandywine”, so looks like in both cases the damage started pretty early in the season. That’s slightly less sad than when Fusarium started killing everything in July/August!

[Seven Bends]

I agree that your Moreton plant looks fine. I've grown it two or possibly three times, and it has always been a somewhat smaller plant than its neighbors -- a little shorter and less dense. If something doesn't look quite right to you in the picture, it may just be a reaction to the heat that's finally arriving here. I found Moreton to be a little less tolerant of the mid-summer heat than the other red hybrids I grow. It also suffered a little more from the foliage diseases, but yours looks remarkably free of those. Nice!

[Cranraspberry]

@Seven Bends thank you, that’s a relief! The fungal stuff hasn’t hit us yet, I’m sure that’s coming soon. What varieties do well for you here? If I recall correctly last year the only plant that kept chugging along was a Better Boy, but that’s admittedly not the most exciting variety.

I walked around the garden today and found a few plots that had tomatoes that looked similar to mine a week ago - same curl and purple veining. I don’t know the plot owners but will be keeping an eye on them to see how the condition progresses.

[Seven Bends]

@Seven Bends thank you, that’s a relief! The fungal stuff hasn’t hit us yet, I’m sure that’s coming soon. What varieties do well for you here? If I recall correctly last year the only plant that kept chugging along was a Better Boy, but that’s admittedly not the most exciting variety.

I walked around the garden today and found a few plots that had tomatoes that looked similar to mine a week ago - same curl and purple veining. I don’t know the plot owners but will be keeping an eye on them to see how the condition progresses.

Please keep us posted on what happens with the similarly-afflicted tomato plants at your community garden. Maybe soon it will become evident what is wrong with them, or maybe they'll grow out of whatever it is.

Our tried-and-true hybrids for a combination of taste, production and reliability are Better Boy, Park's Whopper, Fourth of July (for an early variety), and Cherokee Carbon. We also grow Big Boy every year, but it doesn't handle the midsummer heat as well as Better Boy. I grew Supersonic last year for the first time and loved it. Bodacious did pretty well last year and is getting another try this year. I'm trying Jersey Boy, Brandy Boy, and Steak Sandwich for the first time this year. Super Fantastic, Big Beef, and Moreton have done okay but not great for me. I wish Super Fantastic would do better, because the flavor is excellent.

Favorite heirloom/OP tomatoes so far: Oaxacan Jewel, Kellogg's Breakfast, Stump of the World, Ananas Noire, Armenian, Pineapple, Orange Banana, Mediterranean, Cornue des Andes, Cuore Antico de Acqui Termi. I loved the taste of Rebel Yell and Blue Ridge Mountain but had poor production and disease resistance last year; I'm trying them again this year in a better location. Stump of the World isn't the heaviest producer for me, but the taste is worth it. Terhune is similar. I keep getting something different each time I grow Pineapple, but I've liked it each time. Orange Banana splits a lot but it produces really heavily and is absolutely delicious. It's surprising in that it looks like it should be a dry, paste-type tomato, but it's actually a juicy tomato in a paste shape.

Sungold, Super Sweet 100, Braveheart, Super Snow White, Dikovinka, Garnet, and Rosella are my favorite cherry tomatoes so far.

Viva Italia and Pompeii are my favorite indeterminate paste tomatoes and Supremo is my favorite determinate paste so far.

[Cranraspberry]

@Seven Bends we have an old timer at the garden who we call the Tomato Czar because his tomatoes are incredible. I asked what he plants and he said it was always the same two varieties: Sun Gold and Better Boy!
We’re doing Moreton, Jet Star, Stump of the World, Jaune Flamme, Momotaro, Brandy Boy, Big Beef, Pineapple, Cherokee Carbon and Sun Gold. Oh and a Marzano Fire in a grow bag. I’m excited to see that there’s some overlap between our selections and your list! Last year was odd in that none of our tomatoes had much flavor except for the Best Boy. I suspect it had something to do with the waterlogged soil and too much water. Really curious to see if in the new raised beds make a difference.

[Seven Bends]

@Seven Bends we have an old timer at the garden who we call the Tomato Czar because his tomatoes are incredible. I asked what he plants and he said it was always the same two varieties: Sun Gold and Better Boy!
We’re doing Moreton, Jet Star, Stump of the World, Jaune Flamme, Momotaro, Brandy Boy, Big Beef, Pineapple, Cherokee Carbon and Sun Gold. Oh and a Marzano Fire in a grow bag. I’m excited to see that there’s some overlap between our selections and your list! Last year was odd in that none of our tomatoes had much flavor except for the Best Boy. I suspect it had something to do with the waterlogged soil and too much water. Really curious to see if in the new raised beds make a difference.

Nice list; I look forward to hearing how they do for you. I haven't grown Marzano Fire or Jet Star, and this is my first year with Brandy Boy.

Just to confirm -- did you mean to say that "Best Boy" was the only one with flavor, or did you mean Better Boy? In your previous message, you mentioned Better Boy doing well for you, but maybe you just meant production, not flavor. I haven't grown Best Boy.

If the weather stays sunny and dry, the tomatoes should be delicious this year.

[Cranraspberry]

@Seven Bends we had both a Best and Better Boy last year, as well as Brandywine pink, San Marzano, Pineapple and a mystery plant from our farmers market labeled “tomato red”. Surprisingly the Best Boy was absolutely delicious - sweet, flavorful and exactly what we expected from homegrown tomatoes. Unfortunately the fusarium got him pretty quickly. The Brandywine had some flavor, but less than Best Boy and that made us very confused since we were expecting it to be the star (we had two Brandywine plants, one got what I assume to be TSWV and the other was fine and lasted all season). Everything else was completely bland, indistinguishable from each other in taste. Even fire roasting didn’t bring anything out of the San Marzano, they tasted like a January supermarket tomato and it was hugely disappointing!

But it was our first year gardening, we had no idea what we were doing, the plants were pretty miserable sitting in water logged soil and I attribute the flavor issues to that.

[Cranraspberry]

I also just realized I was saying Best Boy when in fact it was Big Boy! My apologies it’s been a looooong week.