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Old July 14, 2017   #8
pecker88
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: Lincoln, NE
Posts: 192
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most of my tomatoes planted in raised beds in my greenhouse have looked exactly like yours for 2 yrs now. I thought it was too much compost (made beds with 60-80% compost), or too rich. Then I thought that it was herbicide residue from some soil my dad brought (agricultural land, he farms).

Regardless, all of last year, I had a awesome new 30x15' greenhouse with horrible looking plants. They would produce, but just looked terrible. So, last fall I added a bunch of shredded leaves and worked the soil several times over the winter. It never froze in the heated greenhouse. This spring I had the soil tested at a lab and it was near perfect. I added a little sulfur to bring down the pH a bit, no other ferts were needed.

I planted about 12 in-ground tomatoes this spring, and just as many peppers. Results....most of the tomatoes are still curling, exactly like your pictures. Beans, potatoes, peppers, onions and flowers all did AWESOME. I just dug 10 or so 5 gal. buckets of Yukon gold and small red potatoes.

Even though the tomato curling looks terrible, I get loads of tomatoes. I've picked 5 gal. buckets of toms. already, so it doesn't seem to affect yield. I also know that it's not herbicide residue in the soil. Beans are extremely sensitive to herbicide, they would have died immediately after germinating. In the closed greenhouse, there would have never been herb. drift. We don't have any neighbors around either.

What does all this mean? I'm not sure. Maybe pH? Maybe my occasional feeding Tex. Tom. Food, Tomato Tone? I think it's over fertilizing. For some reason I just can't seem to lay off the ferts. All the tomatoes in containers in the greenhouse can't seem to get enough fertilizer. And, when I'm feeding them, I always tend to feed the in-ground plants, and I'm 90% sure this is causing the leaf curl, but at the same time, really helping yield.

Hope this helps.
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