Twisted branches on indoor tomatoes

[Deuteros]

I'm growing tomato plants under a high pressure sodium light. They are about
a month old, very healthy looking, and have just started to bloom. Despite
looking healthy much of the new branches are becoming very tiwsted and are
curling downwards. The leaves are fine, although the plants have some of the
biggest leaves I have ever seem on a tomato plant. I've heard that large
leaves has something to do with the plant being cold, as they are growing in
my basement. Could the twisted branches also be due to the cold or might it
be something else?

[Bill R]

Deuteros wrote:
> I'm growing tomato plants under a high pressure sodium light. They are about
> a month old, very healthy looking, and have just started to bloom. Despite

> looking healthy much of the new branches are becoming very twisted and are

> curling downwards. The leaves are fine, although the plants have some of the
> biggest leaves I have ever seem on a tomato plant. I've heard that large
> leaves has something to do with the plant being cold, as they are growing in
> my basement. Could the twisted branches also be due to the cold or might it
> be something else?

It does not sound like a problem due to the cold. It sounds like some
soil deficiency. The most likely problem is a Potassium deficiency. A
commercial fertilizer with a high end number (10-10-25) will fix that
problem. There are other deficiencies that can cause that type of
problem too but watering with liquid fertilizer should fix those
deficiencies too.
--
Bill R. (Ohio Valley, U.S.A)

Gardening for over 40 years

To see pictures from my garden visit http://members.iglou.com/brosen

Digital Camera - Pentax *ist DL

Remove NO_WEEDS_ in e-mail address to reply by e-mail

[bungadora]

Well here is a site for you: pictures of mineral deficient tomatoes.
You can see if anything matches up.

http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/min-def/tomatoes.htm

You are correct that large leaves are a result of cool temperatures. I
don't know about the twisty bit. I had that happen last year with a
couple of plants but they were healthy otherwise. I attributed it to
my lights and the plants being bent at an early age. You might also
look at this commercial greenhouse tomato handbook.
http://msucares.com/pubs/publications/p1828.htm#temperature

[bungadora]

On Mar 8, 11:32 am, Charlie wrote:
> On Fri, 7 Mar 2008 20:51:29 -0800 (PST), bungadora <bungad...@aol.com>
> wrote:
>
> >http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/min-def/tomatoes.htm
> >http://msucares.com/pubs/publications/p1828.htm#temperature
>
> Thanks for the references.
>
> Care
> Charlie

You're welcome. Since I was curious, I found another one on tomato
diseases which is fairly comprehensive. If the stem is otherwise
healthy I wouldn't be concerned.

http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/diagnostickeys/TomWlt/TomWiltKey.html#yellow

Dora

[sumi...@yahoo.com]

I am having the exact same problem. I just posted on Gardenweb in the
hopes for a answer. My stem is strong the leaves have no
discoloration but the branches are curling. I also have new
blossoms. I did recently prune the plant and probably over watered.
I'm wondering if the plant is stressed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kumato/2330671324/

Picture of whats happening to my plants.

Sumilea

[bungadora]

One of the things I've wondered, since my plants were last year were
otherwise healthy, was whether it is the problem with the lighting.
When the plants are small, the light is supposed to be only about 2
inches away (if using flourescents). Unfortunately it is very
difficult to do that with my setup, because the shelves are fixed, and
also very small. So lighting isn't equally good in all places. I end
up shifting plants around, sometimes giving one the best spot,
sometimes another. When the plants are small they bend and they
stretch, and perhaps some that do not get the good spots end up a
little twisted. They get moved around, and one day they might bend one
way to try to reach the light, and on another they twist around
another way.

Just a thought. It's just that when there isn't anything otherwise
wrong with the plant, it's possible it's the environmental management
at fault, not a disease.
Dora

[Billy]

In article
<243d54e7-0485-4c47...@s37g2000prg.googlegroups.com>,
bungadora <bung...@aol.com> wrote:

IIRC plants will elongate towards the lighting source when they aren't
getting enough light.
--

Billy

Impeach Pelosi, Bush & Cheney to the Hague
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
http://rachelcorriefoundation.org/