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#399504 Jun 5th, 2018 at 09:57 AM
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Last year was my 1st garden attempt on my current property. I have grown great tomatoes on my prior property approx. 20 miles away for years. Last year's tomatoes on this property were beautiful when I brought them out of the greenhouse (I start most of my own plants from seeds). After 2-3 weeks out in the garden the tomato plants began to show signs of something wrong. New leaves at top of plant began to curl and the stem & leaf took on the appearance of shepherd's crook. Soil ph tests out to 7-8 with an average of 7.5. Suggestions have been that the soil is calcium deficient and needs to be opened up with line so that the plant can take in sufficient water & nutrients however the remedy for high ph alkaline soil sulfur. These plants have been in the ground since May 20th and I need to know the right thing to do and hopefully salvage them this year.

Tomato Leaf Curl.JPG (21.45 KB, 21 downloads)
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Northern Star
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Northern Star
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Looks like 'Leaf Curl' ...it's a fungus.


~~Tam~ You can bury all your troubles by digging in the dirt.
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Is there a chance a herbicide could have drifted onto your plants? The shepherd hook thing sort of looks like that type of damage.



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To you who responded, thank you. I had a soil analysis done and the conclusion was that the soil had a very high concentration of salt which was basically locking up the soil preventing nutrients from reaching the roots. An agronomist prepared a report on the soil test findings and provided me with some remedies to improve soil conditions. He also came out and personally looked over my plants and was pretty confident in his conclusion. This property is reclaimed orchard so it's conceivable that long term fertilization left salt deposits. For 10 years this property was owned by the owner of a landscape maintenance company so it's also conceivable that he disposed of chemicals on the property. The agronomist has recommended that I apply PepeCal around the plants to "open up" the soil allowing nutrients to the plants and that I apply 20-20-20 fertilizer. The soil is also deficient in organic materials which can be remedied by a cover crop or loading up the native soil with leaves and other organic debris.

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Thanks for letting us know. Nice of that person to make a visit.



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Glad that you found the cause of your problem. I heard that tomatoes will curl also due to cold stress and lack of enough light.


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