[gimmieToms]

Originally Posted by Koala Doug

LED? CFL? T12? T8? T5?

I only ask because, in addition to the inward/down curling, the leaf edges are starting to curl upwards like you'd see with physiological leaf roll (which itself has many causes).

That variety might be sensitive to certain environmental factors, but those two stress indicators appearing at the same time means that something (or multiple 'things') are causing problems.

I've seen the same thing in the past on a few varieties, but was never able to pinpoint the cause(s). I did notice that the curling down/inward happened after a deep watering... and was more pronounced if the young plant's pot had previously been fairly dry. But they were also under very intense (too close?) lights that potentially caused some level of photo-inhibition. Like you have experienced, all my plants that looked like that recovered after their final transplant outside.

Any year that I do happen to see that condition or conditions, I always try to tweak things to see if I can affect the stress indicators. I've pretty much ruled out fertilization as a cause (or at least as a major cause) and have narrowed the focus to too much, or fluctuating amounts of, water... as well as the potential of too much light intensity.

But I could be missing other factors as I only grow four or five plants a year. So the small numbers mean that it only pops up infrequently and then I rarely have two plants afflicted at the same time that I can run various concurrent A/B tests with them.

The only real suggestion that I can make is to grow multiple ones next year (or even run a test indoors later this spring after you plant out your current young tomato plants) and try to only alter one variable to see if you can induce or reduce the curling issues. Maybe then you can figure out some remedy, or at least, a mitigation strategy.

I wish you the best of luck as it is stressful to watch your babies suffer!


By the way, those ripe tomatoes looks awesome!

I know. It just bugs me because they are my favourites and the only ones suffering. I think they are just temperamental