Your Tomato Leaves are Curling What Does it Mean and What Causes It?

what is going on everyone welcome to another very exciting episode right here on the mi Gardner Channel today's episode is going to be all about tomato leaf curl if they curl up if they curl down if they curl at the top if they are curling at the bottom we're going to talk about it we're gonna explain it why it happens what's causing it what you should be worried about and what you don't have to worry about we're going to talk all about leaf curl so that is today's video let's go [Music] [Music] the first type of leaf curl is one that generally does not have to cause any concern at all and it's the most common and that is upward leaf curl we actually have some on our plants here very normal very common and it's not a detriment to the plant whatsoever it's one that you generally do not have to worry about it is actually caused from a response to an environmental condition it might be that it's too dry it might be that it's too windy it also might be that it's too hot to dry to winning too hot can cause the leaf to curl and this is because it's actually a stimulus it's actually a stimulus our stimulant from from the environment saying that if it does not change the shape of the leaf it will risk dying from stress so if it's too dry the undersides of the leaf are what respire water and when the when the the leaf is respiring too fast it will curl to reduce the amount of surface area so that it's not respiring as fast because it's already lacking water so this is one thing that it will do now this is not necessarily that there's a shortage of water it's just that the plant realizes that it's running out of water and it's not being able to uptake water as fast as it's losing the water so there might still be water in the ground and that's why all these new leaves are perfectly fine and normal it's just that the older leaves are saying hold up a second we need to conserve water so it's just a water conservation trick now again this can also be caused from too hot of temperatures the Sun is the energy source the leaves are like the solar panel if they're flat what can happen is they can absorb too much sun's energy and they can burn so in during hot summer days the lower leaves the more mature leaves will actually begin to curl and this is just a response from the Sun being too hot and it will simply curl up like a little tube to reduce the amount of surface area that the leaf has playing it simple then the third reason is because it's too windy generally you see this in early spring when it's very windy there's not a lot of leaves on the trees we plant our garden out really early the wind is typically the strongest in the spring at least for here and in Michigan but it could be different for you where you're at but you're regardless strong winds can actually blow across the leaf and they can dehydrate the leaf so again another surface area trick that belief has is to curl this is completely normal it does not hurt the plant whatsoever and there's no effect to overall growth in fact the the plant will continue to produce fruit flowers and growth it just kind of protects what it has the foliage that it has so it does not cause unnecessary stress and that's why a lot of these older leaves tend to be the ones that are curling the newer leaves coming out they're not curled they're not stressed and and they're just normal and that tells me that it's just a natural response to the environment which is normal we don't have to do anything as a gardener the only time you'd ever have to do something is if you see a leaf that is curled like this and you open it up and there's like almost like a cocoon in there that means you have a moth or some type of of insect making a webbing in here generally this will be something like you know a type of caterpillar and they can chew on your leaves they can cause stress from from that and it can also damage the leaf because they will they'll poop in here and they'll spread around a lot of fungus and bacteria and that can spread to your leaves so as long as you don't see a caterpillar making a nest inside here like that a lot of times caterpillars will do that they'll actually curl the leaf up to kind of make and seal their home as a way of protection from predators and so they'll do that with your leaf and if you don't see that on your plants you're generally fine where you are fine actually you're not generally fine that's the only time that you'd be concerned is if you saw a caterpillar so that's upward curl the next type of curl that I want to talk about is curly top a curly top is one we've done several videos on and it's actually a virus this is something that you should be concerned about now you shouldn't be concerned that it's going to spread to the rest of your plants prime example is I have one right over here and I'll show you that right now I'm not worried about it I'm just letting the fruit that's on the plant produce and come to fruition it's not spreading to the other plants because it's a virus it's not like a bacteria or a fungus that can spread it's actually internal it's systemic it's inside the plant and it's spread by the leaf hopper the leaf hopper is a little green winged insect that comes and bites your plant and some of them have this this virus in them some don't so even if you have leaf hoppers around and they bite your plant you might not get curly top virus but it seems like about every year if we're growing about 30-40 plants one two three we'll have curly top virus by the end of the year it's a natural thing it happens when it does happen you say oh well move on the plant stops growing it is pretty much rendered dead at that point but you can still get fruit off of it the fruits totally fine and the seeds inside the fruit is totally fine as well the curly top virus will not spread into the genetics of the seed it's just a virus that's that affects systemically the plant all right so this is curly top virus as you can see here is a healthy here is a healthy tomato top here is one that has curly top virus you'll see the whole new growth is very stringy and kind of stunted and spindly this is curly top virus it happens every single year again it can't spread from one plant to the next it's just systemic it's inside this plant here and it's because it was bit by a leaf hopper now again the growth will stop it will essentially stunt this plant it will stop any future fruit production but all the fruit that's on this plant are totally fine they'll continue to ripen up and grow just fine and the plant will attempt to produce a lot of side shoots that's one of the other side effects of curly top virus is you'll see a lot of these other little offshoots kind of branching off here as suckers because the top is stunted it's actually a stimulus or it's a stimulant much like clipping the top off it will say whoa we can't grow any more up here let's try to send some side shoots so it'll produce a lot of suckers and it will do that to try to outgrow the the virus you can leave those suckers on and try to outgrow it it is possible we've done it before but generally about 99.9% of the time this plant is rendered pretty much a goner once the fruit ripens and we get the harvest will pretty much pull the plant out the next type of leaf curl can be caused from a micronutrient deficiency now a lot of people jump to calcium and magnesium thinking that this is gonna solve the issue however generally it's not calcium del C amande magnesium that are causing the leaf curl if you have a calcium deficiency the first thing you're going to see blossom-end rot the last thing you'll see before the plant dies is leaf curl same thing goes with magnesium if the plant has a magnesium deficiency the outsides of the leaves will begin to turn yellow and scorch almost like sunburn and as a last resort the plant will start to curl to protect itself this is this is way down the line after these have already shown themselves for several months the plant does not immediately start to curl its leaves there are two trace minerals however that do actually cause leaf curl when they're in short supply and that is molybdenum and boron molybdenum is my favorite micronutrient to pronounce because it's just a ton of fun to pronounce and and boron so these are generally found in lots of soil but the problem with overworked soil and soil that's not properly amended with compost and and you know really well aged wood chip mulch and leaf mulch and stuff like that is that it can become depleted over time also if you're someone that is using like a bagged potting mix or you know like just a commercially available bagged soil that's kind of scraped topsoil from someplace else you can't guarantee the quality of these are generally the times when you'll see these micronutrient deficiencies generally and more often than not it is not a micronutrient deficiency but if you've already ruled out temperature you know hot weather drought like conditions or high winds and pests like caterpillars you can start to look for those those trace mineral deficiencies and like I said it never hurts to apply I've said this probably more times than I care to admit it does not hurt to apply a fertilizer like trifecta plus or like a like a really well each of manure or a compost something that's going to have some nutrients to it because it's not gonna burn the plants if anything it's going to help solve those nutrient deficiencies and help just check one more thing off your list generally like I said it's generally not an issue I don't typically ever worry about it if I do see it I chalk it up to like winds Sun and drought but if you are concerned throw some on there and it's almost it's almost guaranteed that that will solve the issue because you just need a tiny bit of it it's these micronutrients that play a pivotal role in plant growth but there's often no there's after no shortage of them because they're so so minut so also another great thing you can apply our trace mineral supplement like azomite we use azomite in the garden and that's a great way to incorporate over 70 trace minerals into the garden and it really helps to amend those trace minerals that are sometimes void from even our modern-day soils because you know wind rain and erosion have washed and degraded a lot of our soils away and if we don't properly take care of our soil like a good steward should you know leaving the soil better off than when we first found it they can become depleted over time even in the best of soils so just take those things you can into consideration and know that those two trace minerals are ones that can in fact cause leaf curl but it's pretty hard to diagnose is just the only thing and the very final type of leaf curl is downward leaf curl this is one that you should take action on and one that is definitely not normal to have in your plans this is actually a response because of a lack of water and a lack of nutrients when it comes to root rot so if you're giving the plants too much water or your soil is holding on to too much water the roots can actually rot away and when the roots rot away there's no way for the plant to uptake water so while you're giving it a lot of water or while you've had a ton of rain and you think there's no way my plants can be lacking water in fact they are the inner the inner vascular structure is actually contracting down because it's not able to uptake the water it's trying to fight off the rot to try to prevent the rot from spreading to the rest of the plant it actually contracts the the vascular system of the roots and it chokes off the plant from water that's why your your leaves will typically curl downwards and begin drooping is because of that lack of water they also cannot take nutrients so that's when you'll start to see yellowing of leaves and the curling of leaves together because the yellowing of leaves is a lack of nitrogen the roots you know the roots job is to take water and nutrients and if there's less roots there's also less water and less nutrients that the plant can uptake so those are some things that you need to actually address is if it's getting too much water and it's curling downward either reduce the watering and let the plant just dry out and heal or if it's you know if it's because it's too much rain well there's really not a whole lot you can do now but you can learn from that by adding some some well draining material into your soil to help the soil drain a little better maybe it's all too heavy clay things like that the other reason why it would curl downward is because of a soil borne fungus or disease this could be like septoria wilt this could be like Fusarium wilt a lot of your wilts will also cause downward leaf curl these are things that can happen in early season when temperatures are cold and the way to eliminate that is by simply planting when the weather is warmer a lot of gardeners try to push the envelope and plant as early as possible when temperatures are really cold and there's a lot of rain in the early season however this is when funguses and blights tend to kind of become most prolific and can spread the fastest and so a way to alleviate that is just by planting later you know rather than planting as soon as you can wait until the nighttime temperatures are at least in the in the mid 40s and you should be well on your way to having a really healthy plant that does not have any of those soil borne funguses and and diseases so those are all the reasons or most of the reasons why it leaves curl I tried to hit all of them but I probably forgot a few here and there that are super minut that you'll never come across but those are the most common causes for leaf curl I hope you guys enjoyed I hope you learned something new if you did make sure to throw a huge like up there it's definitely a nice hot one out today very hot out today in fact but we're enjoying it we're having a good day I hope this helps you guys out in the garden and if it did again throw like up there share with your friends if you think they'd enjoy it and subscribe if you're not yet already we've got a lot more content coming out and I'm excited about every single time I get to bring the camera out and show you something new so as always this is Luke from the mi Gardner channel reminding you to grow big or go home grow some tomatoes it is well worth it alright catch you guys later bye

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Views: 746,613

Rating: 4.943572 out of 5

Keywords: wilt, tomato leaf, garden, migardener, Premiere_Elements_2018, complete, tomato leaf curl, gardneing, sun stress, blight, curling, curl, explained

Id: 9JTsQMB8H7M

Length: 13min 40sec (820 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 01 2019