curly leaf problem

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by sindhooram, May 20, 2010.

  1. sindhooram

    sindhooram Junior Member

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    Hello - I went away on holiday and before I notice that a few leaves of my tomato plants were curling. I assumed that the cause was aphids, however I'm now not sure.
    I've returned and found this phenomena all over my garden!!! So many plants are affected...basil - even holy basil, amaranth, one tree, even some leaves of our noni tree - loads of things - I have no idea why!!! The leaves are just curling up.
    Is this a virus or bacteri? Should I pull everything out that is curling, or can the disease work its way out of the system as I would hate to cut down the noni tree and all the tulasi (holy basil). Can I compost effected plants? is it soil or airborne? could I just remove affected leaves? might the monsoon rain clear the environment of this??
    Any suggestions really appreciated!!
     
  2. purplepear

    purplepear Junior Member

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    can you post a pic or two?
     
  3. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    I think an organic solution rather than an '-icide' solution is what is being requested here.
     
  4. Ichsani

    Ichsani Junior Member

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    Hello - curled leaves can also be caused by water stress (especially if pots dry out and become water repellent) as well as sometimes caused by copper and/or magnesium deficiency. Its fairly unusual for such fungi to affect soft leaf plants pre-monsoon unless the humidity has started to climb to near maximum. Also, it affects new leaves.... not the old ones...

    Give them a good water (ie submerge pots), spray the leaves with a fish and/or seaweed emulsion and see what happens. If it is water related then the leaves should recover fairly quickly but may still look a bit wonky...

    If its fungus... well some stuff called ecorose (potassium bicarbonate) is pretty useful as well as benign to you and other critters.

    https://www.ecoorganicgarden.com.au/product.php?id=2

    You should be able to find potassium bicarbonate at a nursery or agricultural college.

    I second purplepears request for pics though... until then we're really all just guessing - they really do help :)

    Cheers
    Ich
     
  5. purplepear

    purplepear Junior Member

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    But perhaps you are not aware of the raised beds available through the easy veg website Eco.
    https://www.ezyvegies.com.au/
    You can sometimes spend your way out of problems.
     
  6. sindhooram

    sindhooram Junior Member

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    thank you for the replies....I will take photos this week and post them here....I am noticing this leaf thing is prevelant in the local neighbourhood on many different species so I would like to know what it is....
     
  7. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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    Strange,
    How close are you to the nuclear reactor?

    Perhaps the plants just missed you? ;)

    More info pls. this is tre odd.
     
  8. mischief

    mischief Senior Member

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    I dont think its that, we have had funny curled misshapen leaves this last growing season on tomatoes( and something else which I cant remember right now) which made me wonder if my neighbour had been spraying something again, but apparently not.
    I'd like to know why to and have been watching this to see if I can get an answer.
    The water issue maybe it.
    We have Very free draining soil and sometimes even when its rained gently all night the soil is still just damp rather than wet.
     
  9. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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    Those suggestions were supposed to be frivolous!

    Spray drift can come from miles away.
    Do others near you have a problem? Funny that it only(?) happened while you were away.

    Don't you have volcanic soil?
    Truck loads of Organic matter, zeolite(surprisingly small amounts) and some charcoal will help hold water in soil.
     
  10. mischief

    mischief Senior Member

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    Oh, ....haha

    I seem to be the only one that gardens in my immediate neighbourhood.
    The lady 2 doors down used to spray things all the time, but apparently doesnt anymore.

    We do have farmland with a K on two sides, they probably spray,... but this is something I havent seen before and only since last year.
    Didnt mean to take over the thread, just meant I hoped this was the solution ( water and water retention)
    Yes our soil is volcanic.
    No idea what zeolite is....some kind of micro bacteria???
     
  11. sindhooram

    sindhooram Junior Member

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    Hello - I am attatching photos of the curly leaves. All the leaves photographed should be straight normally. We have had some rains now but the leaves are still curly....maybe it takes more time for them to come right?
    Unfortunately I didnt take the tomato plant photos before I pulled them out as they weren't healthy.
    There were aphids on the curly tomato leaves but not on the other plants....
     

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  12. purplepear

    purplepear Junior Member

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    I am thinking Thrips but aphids could be too. Something has sucked the juice from the plant to cause the distortions to the leaf. IMO
     
  13. sindhooram

    sindhooram Junior Member

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    Hello - there were aphids on the tomatoes so i suspect they may have deformed the tomato leaves.
    But on the leaves photographed there were no aphids in sight. And I googles thrips to see what they look like and have never seen them on any of the plants - would I notice them or are they an elusive thing?
     
  14. purplepear

    purplepear Junior Member

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    You usually would know yoou have them.
     
  15. sindhooram

    sindhooram Junior Member

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    I guess it's not thrips then as have never seen one and do check plants quite regularly when I'm not on holiday.
    I am thinking maybe as suggested eariler it could be something phyisiological caused by lack of rain and high temperatures but will wait until we have had a couple of weeks of rain and see if new leaves are coming right.
     
  16. sindhooram

    sindhooram Junior Member

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    I Hello, I am continuing this thread that I started some months ago. Because I wasnt gardening much during the main monsoon season I didnt pay much more attention to this issue.
    However now I am getting concerned that everything we are growing is coming with some level of curly /deformed leaves. The tomatoes have just all been hit - some look only minimally affected, others have quite a bit of deformation. The beans have also been affected - they were growing great but suddenly leaves have curled. Its also happened to purple basil. I can see this phenomena also in some weeds and trees growing in the neighbourhood. Papaya is also hit.
    There doesnt seem to be much point pulling everything out to start again as this condition is so prevelant in the neighbourhood, so I am just hoping that something will still produce . But I just can't work out what is causing it. There are no signs of whitefly or aphids on the tomatoes. Some grasshoppers have been nibbling the leaves of the ones in the garden, but the ones on the roof in pots have their leaves all intact. The weather has been quite irratic, but I'm not convinced that's the caused as its not just curling but some leaves are actually deformed.... all quite mysterious...I have contacted one local big organic farm to see if they know what its all about, in case anyone else has any information or knows who else I could contact to see if they know about this phenomena please let me know. I am wondering if there could be some kind of environmental contaminant but there are no farms nearbye so I can't see that there would be any major spraying in the area...
    Many thanks
     
  17. Terra

    Terra Moderator

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    Dont discount spray drift , the large area being affected and trees and weeds really sets of alarm bells . With the right conditions hormone sprays can "lift" and travel a long way , they are restricted around vineyard producing areas for that reason . What about grass species if they are uneffected it might provide a clue to what type if it is spray drift .
    Rob
     
  18. sun burn

    sun burn Junior Member

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    My bet is that there's a deficiency in the soil. I have a vague idea that i've read about nitrogen causing this. A nitrogen deficiency can result from they way you apply compost I think. But don't take my word for it. Do some more research on the net. Ask about this problem on Gardening Australia forum and search their fact sheets for signs and symptoms. What you need is a book or to google for signs and symptoms. You should be able to diagnose the problem effectively this way. I have made several accurate diagnosis of things using google, but mainly on me and my cat. I am sure google is also useful for plants.

    At the moment i have this curling problem on some of my pumpkins. They are growing in incompletely decomposed compost. None of my other pumpkin plants show this problem. oh no here comes the rain and i am outside iwht my lappy.
     
  19. sindhooram

    sindhooram Junior Member

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    Hello, the spray drift does sound quite likely as even weeds are affected but I have no idea where there is any agriculture around that would spray like that.
    I dont think its nitrogen deficiany since the lower leaves are still very green and healthy and the plant growing at a good rate. Also I put a lot of compost and old cow dung in the container tomatoes on the roof. the farmer I contacted suggested a virus... but he said it is normally caused by aphids and there are none so far...I am now suspecting the grasshoppers transmitted something but there are some infected plants on the roof which dont appear to have been eaten at all.....I am just waiting anxiously to see if they produce anything!!.
    Sunburn I have never heard of pineapple leaves curling - do they have any bugs or anything on them?
     

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