The most common reasons that you notice tomato leaves curling up are due to environmental issues. Lack of Water . Another reason that your plants might have leaf curling is that you need to give your plants more water. Pruning too much, herbicide damage, curly top virus, micronutrient deficiency, pest damage, and excess nitrogen too are a couple extra things to investigate.
You could be wondering “Why tomato plant leaves curling?”
One thought is that the most likely cause of tomato leaves curling is excessively hot conditions . In addition to hot weather, windy and dry weather can cause tomato leaves to curl in a similar fashion. Drifting herbicides, viruses and disease, cold weather, excess nitrogen, pest damage, overwatering, or root bound plants are a couple more ideas to pay attention too.
Another cause of tomato plant leaf curling, also known as leaf roll , is attributed to physiologic conditions. While its exact cause may be unknown, it’s believed to be a sort of self-defense mechanism.
One idea is that the five primary reasons for tomato curls are wind damage , herbicide drift, herbicide residues, broad mites, or tomato viruses. Wind damage occurs when high, dusty, and low humidity winds damage the leaves or stems of the tomato plant.
You could be wondering “Is there a cure for tomato leaf curling?”
Although physiologic effects for tomato leaf curl do not affect the overall growth or crop yields of plants, when the tomato leaf curling is due to a viral infection, removal of the infected plants is necessary .
Why are my leaves curling up?
As you can see the lower leaves are starting to curl upwards but just on this one plant. It’s also common for leaves to curl downwards as seen here. Ok so now we have identified what leaf curl is it’s time to look for the possible cause and treatment. If the leaves curl down then this may indicate root rot .
What causes tomato leaves to twist?
Viruses in the geminivirus group are most often the culprit for virus-based leaf twisting in tomatoes. In Texas, the most common virus encountered is the tomato yellow leaf curl virus . Geminiviruses spread to tomatoes and other plants exclusively by the sweet potato or silverleaf whitefly (Bemisia tabaci).
The next thing we asked ourselves was: what causes leaf discoloration on tomato plants?
The answer is that unlike with leaves curling upwards that’s caused by heat stress, Curly Top Virus causes leaf discoloration, too, and new growth becomes leggy. If you suspect this, particularly if your area has a lot of leafhoppers, look at the underside of the leaves for discoloration.
How to diagnose tomato yellow leaf curl virus?
To confirm tomato yellow leaf curl virus, submit plant samples to the Texas Plant Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (http://plantclinic. tamu. edu). Pull up and dispose of diseased plants. They key to solving the problem of twisted or curled leaves is to identify the source or sources of the problem.