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Today, tomatoes are grown on almost every plot; summer residents already know a lot about this crop and know how to cultivate it. But even with proper cultivation and regular care With With tomatoes, certain problems can arise: the ovaries will fall off, the fruits will crack, or the bush will simply dry out. One of the most common situations is curling leaves on tomato bushes. It would seem that there is nothing wrong, but this leads to disruption of photosynthesis, as a result of which the bush slowly dies. Therefore, if the leaves of tomatoes curl, it is necessary to find out the reason and take the necessary measures.
Why do tomato leaves curl, what kind? illnesses can provoke this, and what to do so that the leaves on tomatoes no longer curl - there will be an article about this.
Why do tomato leaves curl?
There are two reasons why tomato leaves curl:
- Infectious.
- Non-infectious.
In the first case, tomato leaves curl as a result of a disease caused by some kind of infection. One such disease is cancer, for example. Collectively, such diseases are called tomato bacteriosis.
Due to bacteriosis, the tomato leaves curl downwards, then the young leaves at the top of the bush become smaller, the flowers also become small, and they cannot grow ovaries.
Bacteriosis of tomatoes is very dangerous - this way you can lose all the tomatoes in a short time. The disease is spread by contaminated seeds; the infection can be transmitted to tomatoes by insect pests such as aphids, whiteflies, leafhoppers or cutworms).
It is almost impossible to cure tomatoes with leaves curled by bacteriosis. Due to the fact that bacteriosis is very contagious, it is better to quickly remove damaged tomato bushes and burn them. The soil will have to be treated with antiseptics; you can use “Farmayod” - this will help kill the infectious agent.
What causes leaves to curl in tomatoes?
The question: “Why do tomato leaves curl?” cannot be answered unequivocally. But, most often, the reason for this is incorrect agricultural technology.
Since the treatment of tomatoes will directly depend on the cause of the disease, first of all you will have to find out why the leaves of tomatoes are bent.
Lack of moisture
Very often, the leaves on tomatoes begin to wither and curl for such a banal reason as insufficient watering.. In this case, the tomatoes themselves force their leaves to curl, because this will reduce their area, which means less water will evaporate from the surface of each leaf.
How to treat this problem? To prevent tomatoes from dying, you just need to water them. Tomatoes should be watered correctly:
- do this at least once a week;
- even in severe drought, you should not water the bushes more than two or three times a week;
- It is necessary to pour at least a bucket of water under each bush (this applies to adult plants);
- You should make sure that water does not get on the leaves and stems of tomatoes;
- when the fruits begin to swell, reduce the amount of watering, otherwise the tomatoes will crack;
- It is better if the water for watering tomatoes is warm and settled.
Watering too much
Oddly enough, too much water can do the same thing as too little water: tomato leaves begin to curl and look lifeless and weak. It's easy to recognize the problem:
- first, you need to inspect the soil: if it is wet, then the tomatoes are not suffering from drought;
- secondly, the stems of overly waterlogged tomatoes become brittle rather than limp;
- thirdly, during drought leaves curl inward, and during excessive moisture, on the contrary, the edges of the tomato leaves turn outward, that is, upward.
In a situation with waterlogged soil, we can recommend the following:
- Temporarily stop watering tomatoes.
- Stretch a film over the beds to protect the tomatoes from precipitation.
- Plant tomatoes in loose, well-permeable soil.
A good soil for tomatoes should contain large elements, this could be river sand, peat, sawdust - all this will help the water to quickly absorb into the ground and go into deeper layers. In extreme cases, if the beds with tomatoes are in a lowland, for example, you can add a handful of sand to each hole - this way the roots of the tomatoes will not be constantly in the water.
High air temperature
It often happens that tomato leaves curl due to extreme heat. Both in garden beds, and even more so in greenhouses, on the hottest summer days, tomato leaves can curl into a tube relative to the central vein.
You can help both greenhouse and ground tomatoes in this situation:
- ventilate the greenhouse and even create drafts in it - tomatoes are not afraid of this;
- mulch the soil in the beds with tomatoes with a thick layer of organic substances (sawdust, humus, straw, spruce needles);
- create shade over the bushes using light-proof covering materials;
- Every evening, spray a solution of urea (1.5 tablespoons per 10 liters of water) or pale pink potassium permanganate on the tomatoes.
And, of course, The main “treatment” for wilted tomatoes is regular watering.
Eating disorder
A lack of microelements is also often the reason why tomato leaves curl.
The appearance of the bushes will tell you which mineral the tomatoes lack:
- if tomatoes do not have enough phosphorus, their leaves curl down, become gray-green, and the veins, on the contrary, acquire a bright purple-red hue.
- When tomatoes lack potassium, their petals curl upward from the edge to the middle. Moreover, only the young, upper leaves curl, and whitish spots may appear on the fruits.
Treatment of tomatoes in such situations is simple - you just need to compensate for the lack of necessary microelements by using phosphorus or potassium fertilizer (superphosphate and potassium nitrate, for example).
For organic lovers, wood ash is suitable, which contains both potassium and phosphorus, which are necessary for tomatoes. To quickly help tomatoes, you need to stir the ash in a bucket of water and spray all the affected bushes with this mixture.
Excessive nitrogen in the soil can also cause tomato leaves to curl. You can find out about this by a stem that is too thick, along with small flowers or their complete absence. Ridding the soil of excess nitrogen is simple: you need to generously water the beds with tomatoes with plain water.
Incorrect stepsoning
Experienced gardeners know that tomato bushes need to be shaped (this does not apply to all varieties and varieties of tomatoes). You need to remove the shoots correctly, otherwise you can easily damage the bush and destroy most of the tomato crop.
Approach the issue pinching tomatoes it is necessary to correctly:
- Young shoots, the length of which does not exceed five centimeters, are removed.
- There is no need to pick off too small shoots from tomatoes, since the wound will heal faster if you leave a “stump” about a centimeter long in place of the shoot.
- You need to do pinching in the morning, so that by the evening the wounds on the tomatoes will weather and heal a little. Humid night climates favor the spread of infections.
- On the eve of this procedure, it is recommended to water the tomatoes; this will make their stems more brittle and fragile - it will be easier to remove the stepsons, and injuries will be minimal.
- You need to do everything with disposable gloves or use a sterile instrument.
- Tattered stepsons should be taken away from the tomato beds, as bacteria quickly develop in the waste.
When the rules of shoots were not followed, for example, too many shoots were removed in one day, or the gardener broke off already overgrown shoots (longer than five centimeters), the tomatoes experience severe stress. As a result, the tomatoes' leaves curl and become limp and lifeless.
There is no need to fight this problem; it is enough to provide the tomatoes with good care: ventilation, watering, and a not too hot climate. This way the tomatoes will recover faster and continue their development.
The only thing that can be done is to feed the tomatoes with complex mineral fertilizer or use a good biostimulant.
If the gardener does not have experience and knowledge, it is better not to carry out pinching at all: let the tomatoes be thickened and the fruits small, rather than lose the entire harvest completely.
Insect pests
Panic on the topic: “Tomato leaves are curling, what should I do!” inappropriate, since you need to act quickly here. First of all, it is necessary to inspect the bushes, because a common reason that the leaves on tomatoes curl and droop are insect pests.
Why do tomato leaves curl in this case? The reason is simple: pests suck the juice out of them. As a result, the leaf blade becomes thin and lifeless, quickly dries out in the sun and wraps itself in a tube.
You can see the insects on the underside of the leaf – that’s where they most often hide. These small pests are considered the most dangerous for tomatoes., How:
- aphid;
- red spider mite;
- whitefly larvae.
In addition to the “curly” foliage of tomatoes, a couple more symptoms can be added, such as the appearance of spots, yellowing, drying out and falling off. In this case, you should treat the tomatoes with suitable insecticides as soon as possible.
How to spray tomatoes if the leaves curl? – at different stages of plant development, preparations of different composition and effectiveness can be used. When there are no ovaries on tomatoes yet, chemically active substances and poisons are quite suitable: such insecticides act quickly and surely, and they will not be able to accumulate in the fruits.
If tomatoes are already ripening on the bushes, and the foliage is curled, you can try biological products such as Fitoverm, for example. Various folk recipes also help well, an infusion of weed (wormwood, ragweed and other weeds).
conclusions
Unfortunately, there is no clear answer to the question of what to do when tomato leaves curl. The gardener will have to find out the cause of this problem, and then decide on ways to combat it.
It should be understood that there is no universal remedy for the “curliness” of tomatoes: in each situation, treatment will be individual. There is also premature anxiety, for example, There are varieties of tomatoes whose genetic feature is slightly curled leaves. This happens due to the thinness of the leaf plate - the leaf hangs, and its edges curl up a little. One such variety is cherry tomatoes.
There is only one conclusion: you need to watch tomatoes and, of course, provide the plants with proper care. Then the foliage will be healthy and beautiful, and the harvest will delight the owner.
