What causes the leaves on tomatoes to curl? Why do the leaves of tomatoes in a greenhouse turn yellow and curl? Improper fertilizing with organic fertilizers

Tomatoes are very demanding and finicky plants. If you do not care for them correctly and in a timely manner, the leaves may change their color or curl into a tube. The question of why tomato leaves curl remains relevant for many gardeners. Let's talk about the various reasons in more detail.

Curling of leaves due to root damage when transplanting seedlings

Damage to the roots, which can occur when transplanting seedlings (especially overgrown ones) to a permanent location, often leads to malnutrition and leaf curling. During adaptation, planted tomatoes should be given time to recover, during which fertilizing should be completely avoided.

Curling of leaves due to high temperatures

In fact, tomatoes are plants of a temperate climate; too cold nights and too hot days are contraindicated for them. If during the day the temperature rises above +35 C, then the leaves curl into a boat. The “disease” is aggravated by lack of moisture - the soil cracks and tears the roots. Therefore, in addition to curling, signs of a lack of microelements may also appear.

Curling leaves due to over or under watering

Tomatoes are very sensitive to soil moisture levels; both overmoistening and lack of water can have a negative impact. You can reliably determine the cause by looking closely at the leaves: if curling occurs along the central vein, this indicates a lack of water. But there is no need to rush to flood the plants - water the soil, loosen it and mulch the bed.

Curling of leaves due to lack of microelements

Curled tomato leaves may indicate a lack of some micronutrient. Most often, tomatoes lack phosphorus and potassium. If there is a lack of phosphorus, the leaves curl down, move away from the stem at an acute angle and may turn dark green or acquire a purple tint. Potassium deficiency is manifested by leaves curling upward from the edges to the middle, young leaves become curly, and ripe tomatoes may have light spots.

Curling of leaves due to improper pinching

Stepping is the removal of lateral shoots; if this is not done, the tomato plant will begin to actively branch. This leads to too much thickening of the plantings; the plants will form a lot of leaf mass, which is usually curled. It is often difficult to correct this situation, especially if the plants are very neglected, so tomatoes need to be planted at a young age, when they tolerate this operation as painlessly as possible. And remember, it is better to break out the stepsons, and not cut them out, and do this in the morning, when the plants are turgor. The length of the stepsons should be no more than five centimeters.

Curling of leaves due to pest damage

Some pests can also cause curled leaves. Red spider mites, whiteflies or aphids live on the underside of the leaf and gradually suck the juices out of it. The leaf begins to curl. But there are other symptoms of damage: the leaves turn yellow, dry out, and spots appear on them.

What to do with pests is clear to everyone without further explanation. You need to get rid of pests. We spray the plants with Fitoverm or other pest repellents (preferably, of course, biological ones).

It may also be like this, for example: the tomato leaves did not curl suddenly, but were always slightly curled downwards, from the very beginning. Some varieties of tomatoes have this feature: thin, hanging, clustered leaves. Cherry tomatoes are especially guilty of this. In this case, there is no reason to worry at all.

Curling of leaves due to disease damage

Quite often, tomato leaf blades curl due to various diseases. Various types of diseases develop most actively in dense plantings, in areas where crop rotation is not observed, where plants are over-watered and the soil is not loosened.

Stolbur. Stolbur disease or phytoplasmosis is caused by tiny microorganisms - mycoplasmas, which develop in the conducting vessels of plant tissues. Tomatoes are most often affected by stolbur, and other vegetable crops can also become infected with it: peppers, potatoes and eggplants.

The affected leaves become smaller, and the plants themselves, infected at an early stage of development, are severely stunted in growth. The flowers have petals that grow together, giving them the shape of a bell. The corolla practically does not develop, the petals become discolored or turn green.

In tomatoes, stolbur affects leaves, flowers and fruits. With stolbur, the color of the apical leaves of tomatoes changes - they become light. The same thing happens with other vegetable crops, and after some time the leaves and stems acquire a purple tint due to the accumulation of anthocyanin in the tissues. Tomato pillar and measures to combat the disease. If stolbur affects tomato fruits, they do not acquire normal color during the ripening period. Some of the fruit tissue becomes coarser, so the fruit becomes tough and tasteless. Yellow or white stripes may be seen on the surface of the fruit, representing lignified tissue. The seed chamber grows, the seeds remain underdeveloped or absent altogether. When tomatoes are infected early, stolbur leads to almost complete sterility. With later infection, up to 70% of the fruits remain edible, but the next harvest from diseased plants is completely inedible. The main measure to combat tomato stolbur is the destruction of weeds. During the summer of leafhoppers, plantings and sowings of vegetable nightshade crops should be sprayed twice with a 0.2% solution of karbofos. To prepare the mixture, 20 g of solution should be dissolved in 10 liters. water.

Bacterial cancer of tomatoes. Bacterial cancer is a disease that causes a lot of headaches for vineyard owners, but, unfortunately, it does not bypass tomatoes either. This is a very dangerous disease for tomatoes; its causative agents are non-motile rod-shaped bacteria. As a rule, they enter the plant through various wounds and damage. Then they penetrate deep into the plant, even into the fruits and cause internal infection. The optimal temperature for bacteria to develop is 25 degrees; at temperatures above 50 degrees, bacteria die. The first signs of infection appear two to three weeks after planting the seedlings in the ground. There are two forms of defeat. The first most dangerous form is that the plant almost completely dies due to damage to the vascular system. Bacterial canker develops slowly; it can take two months from the onset of infection to the complete death of the plant.

During this time, black gaps appear on the stems, through which the bacteria continue to spread. The second form is less dangerous; it manifests itself in the form of spots on the leaves, fruits and stems. Infected fruits can be identified by darkening of the vascular bundles if the fruit is torn from the calyx. If the infection is not so severe, it can be noticed by cutting the fruit and looking for yellow strands leading to the seed chambers. Tomatoes can also become infected externally during the secondary spread of the infection. Bacterial cancer is rare in field conditions; it is mainly a greenhouse disease; high temperature and humidity contribute to the development of the disease.

Other reasons for leaves curling on tomatoes

Due to a lack of calcium, the foliage on tomatoes curls upward. If blossom end rot appears on the fruit at the same time and growth points begin to die, this confirms calcium deficiency.

The problem is solved by fertilizing with calcium nitrate.

When leaf edges curl and darken and old foliage dies, this indicates a potassium deficiency. Treatment of the disease consists of fertilizing with potassium fertilizers.

Leaf deformation can also occur due to oversaturation with manganese. In this case, the foliage becomes wrinkled, as if chewed.

It will not be possible to correct the situation; it can only be prevented by a balanced use of manganese. Only a quarter of a teaspoon of the mineral is added to a bucket of water, but no more.

What to do if tomato leaves curl

If the cause is identified, it will be easy to help the plants:

adjust watering. Plants in open ground are watered once every 2-3 days, in a greenhouse once every 5-7 days. If a period of prolonged rain has begun, you can make a temporary shelter from excess water by stretching cellophane over the plantings;
the stepsons are broken out when their length reaches 10-15 cm. The lower leaves are removed gradually, no more than two per week;
Excess nitrogen is neutralized by adding ash. Prepare an aqueous solution: one glass of ash per bucket of water. You can apply it at the root, or you can spray it;
the lack of other microelements is compensated for by additional feeding;
If pests are detected, they are treated with insecticides.
At high temperatures, it is recommended to mulch the soil with straw or husks and spray the leaves with Novosil with the addition of microelements. As agronomists advise, you need to dilute 2 tablespoons of urea per 10 liters of water and carry out the treatment, usually in the evening. And after a couple of days, be sure to treat with potassium permanganate; the solution is made a weak pink color.

And remember: in order to avoid unpleasant incidents in growing tomatoes, strictly follow agricultural practices from the very beginning of the season, properly prepare seeds for sowing, use complex fertilizers with microelements for fertilizing and, especially in the first half of summer, be sure to carry out preventive measures to combat pests and diseases . Only in this case will the plants please you with a good harvest.

Sometimes the leaves begin to curl inward during the seedling stage. You planted the seeds in special soil intended for nightshades, waited for the shoots to emerge and created seemingly ideal conditions for them, but the leaves of the tomato seedlings curl.
To eliminate the causes of curling, make sure that the soil in the pots does not dry out, but at the same time is not constantly wet. The normal state of the substrate is when it is visibly moist, but at the same time remains crumbly. Containers for seedlings must have drainage holes to allow water to drain.

What to do?
Don't rush to panic. If the lowest leaves - the cotyledons - are deformed, then this is a natural process. They must die off after completing the task of providing the sprout with nutrients at the first stage of development. If permanent leaves have curled, then you need to find the cause of the phenomenon and eliminate it. Tomato seedlings curl due to shortcomings in cultivation:
▪ lack of moisture;
▪ too bright sunlight;
▪ excessively dry air;
▪ shortage of fertilizers;
▪ seedlings have outgrown the cramped cups;
▪ seedlings planted in the ground were caught by frost.

Move the drawers from the south window to the west or east - this way you will get rid of excess sunlight. It is more difficult to deal with dry air, which is necessarily present in the apartment, if the radiators are running. Separate the window sill from the room with a piece of plastic film. If you spray the leaves with a spray bottle once a day, the air will be moist in the space between the glass and the film.
Feed the seedlings if you have never done this before. It is better to use complex fertilizer.
Check to see if the bushes have outgrown their containers. Look into the drainage hole - if a thick “beard” of roots hangs out of it, then the seedlings need to be replanted.

Tomato leaves curl in open ground

In open ground, leaves curl for the same reasons as in a greenhouse. In addition, there are several factors that occur in the open air rather than in cultivation facilities.
Freezing is the number one cause of leaf curl in the spring or fall. Immediately after freezing, the leaves become boat-like, raising the edges upward, and after a few hours they lose turgor and droop. Plants damaged by frost should be watered with warm water and sprayed with Silk or Epin. There is always a chance that the leaves will come to life or that stepsons will grow from their axils, from which it will be possible to form a full-fledged bush.
If the leaves of tomatoes curl down, this is the first sign of bacteriosis. In this case, the lower leaves turn brown and later dry out, and sores are visible on the stems. Plants affected by bacteriosis should be removed from the garden bed, and the remaining holes should be watered with a solution of copper sulfate: take a teaspoon of powder per 5 liters of water.
The reason for curling of tomato leaves in open ground is the early planting of seedlings in film shelters. In this case, the roots end up in cold soil and cannot cope with the absorption of moisture from the soil. The upper part of the plant, on the contrary, is warm and evaporates moisture. In this case, twisting the plates is a protection against dehydration. There is no need to take special measures - when the soil warms up, the plates will straighten.
If you add fresh manure to the bed before planting, the leaves may curl into a ring. At the same time, the leaves become excessively juicy and break easily. To remove excess nitrogen, you need to loosen the soil and apply potassium-phosphorus fertilizers.
The tomato bush curls its leaves due to numerous injuries during pinching. Do not remove many shoots at one time - this will not only cause the tomatoes to curl, but even drop their flowers. After pinching, spray the plants with a biostimulant, for example, a solution of succinic acid.

Tomato leaves curl in a greenhouse

It happens that the gardener’s seedlings turned out well, and the replanting went without problems - the bushes quickly took root in a new place in the greenhouse and even began to grow, but the leaves on them began to curl.

Leaf blades in a greenhouse change shape due to:
. nutritional imbalance;
. excessive or insufficient watering;
. too high air temperature;
. diseases;
. pest damage.

In addition, the cause of the unpleasant phenomenon may be a transplant in which the roots were damaged. In this case, the plant will be sick for some time, but its healthy appearance will be restored.
With a lack of potassium, the leaf blades become brown, the veins turn yellow, and the edges curl.
With a lack of phosphorus, the veins become red-violet, the leaves themselves become grayish, and the edges curl upward.
Tomatoes may lack zinc, boron, sulfur, and copper. The lack of elements is manifested by the leaves of tomatoes curling and color changing. If there is a shortage, foliar feeding with micro- and macroelements will help.
The cause of curling may be excess zinc, which is manifested by a purple color on the underside of the plate, and the color changes from the edges to the center. The tomato leaves curl downwards. To eliminate excess zinc, phosphorus and nitrogen are added to the soil, and on excessively acidic substrates, when planting, add a little fluff or dolomite flour - a tablespoon per hole.
In greenhouses, tomatoes are often affected by spider mites and whiteflies. These insects live on the underside of the leaf blade and feed on plant juices. As a result, the leaves begin to curl, turn yellow and dry out, and spots appear on them. Pests are eliminated using the drug Fitoverm and other biological agents approved for use in protected soil.
On a hot day, the air temperature in the greenhouse can reach 50 degrees. It is not surprising that in such heat, tomatoes curl in the greenhouse, with all parts of the leaf curling into a tube along the central vein. If the leaves return to normal at night, the heat of the day is definitely the cause of the problem. The building needs to be ventilated. In particularly hot weather, it is covered outside from direct sunlight with opaque materials.
It should be taken into account that some varieties of tomatoes have a peculiarity - they have hanging, twisted, thin and long leaf blades. Such leaves are often found on Cherry type tomatoes. Twisting does not require intervention as it is a natural phenomenon.

Prevention of curled leaves in tomatoes

In plants with curled leaves, the process of photosynthesis slows down. Consequently, they receive less nutrition and lose productivity. Therefore, it is not enough to take action when a problem occurs. It is better to pay attention to prevention.
The causes of leaf deformation can be divided into:
- infectious;
- non-infectious.
Prevention of infectious causes will be in the good sanitary condition of the greenhouse and open ground plantings. Plants must be ventilated - this will protect them from bacterial infections, especially tomato bacteriosis, which is the main infectious cause of leaf deformation.
Non-infectious factors are easier to eliminate. It is enough to follow agricultural practices, feed the plants, and make sure they receive moisture and light.
Now you know what to do if the tomato bushes have curled their leaves, and you can deal with the problem.

Any summer resident is interested in why the leaves of tomatoes curl, and the leaves may turn yellow. These tasty and healthy vegetables are affected by pests and are susceptible to diseases. To save plants, urgent and most effective measures should be taken.

The following reasons can be cited that cause leaves to curl in tomatoes:

temperature violation;
violation of humidity regime;
insect damage;
damage by bacterial diseases;
nutritional imbalance;
incorrect pinching and pinching;
damage to the rhizome.

What should gardeners do to grow a healthy plant? Let's take a closer look at each of the causes of leaf curling and how to eliminate them.

By evening, the curled leaves take their normal shape and during the night they receive the missing moisture from the dew, replenishing the balance. What to do if the weather is hot and dry for a long time and the tomato leaves curl? The best way is to shade the plant, helping its foliage to avoid curling.

You can throw the following materials on tomatoes during hot hours:

covering spunbond;
agrofibre;
lutrasil.

It is not recommended to water the plant in the sun, since droplets of water can cause burns to the leaves. A good way to combat the described cause of curling is to mulch the soil in tomato beds. What to do if the plant is not comfortable enough? You can cool the roots with a few centimeters of grass clippings.

Violation of humidity regime

A common reason why tomato leaves curl is a small amount or excess moisture. Some summer residents do not pay due attention to watering, hoping that rain will compensate for the lack of moisture. Others do not water often enough or in small quantities. With a small amount of water, moisture penetrates only a few centimeters of soil, without reaching the roots located below.

Tomatoes need to be watered once every three days if the beds are not protected by grass, and once every 7 days on mulched beds. There should be a bucket of water for each tomato bush. It should not be poured out all at once, but in portions, so that all the water penetrates for its intended purpose - to the rhizome.

Excess moisture can also cause leaves to curl inward. In case of excessive humidity, the tomato leaves curl up. The root system of plants can suffocate during periods of prolonged rainfall, especially if tomatoes grow in clay soil, where water does not drain deep very quickly. If you fill the holes with loose soil when planting plants, this misfortune can be avoided. To remove moisture from the roots, you can make grooves.

Insect pests

The causes of leaf curling are complemented by damage to tomato leaves by harmful insects (aphids, whiteflies) that suck out their juices, which leads to curling of tomato leaves. Tomato leaves will straighten if you start saving from pests in time. If the leaves turn yellow, spots and damage appear on them, you need to spray the foliage with ready-made preparations or use infusions of onion peels, celandine, and wood ash.

The use of chemicals when growing fruit appears is undesirable, since tomatoes tend to accumulate toxic substances.

If the leaves on a tomato curl due to the presence of pests on them, you can use the following infusions:

Infusion of wood ash. 2 tbsp. Pour the ash into a bucket of water, mix with 100 grams of laundry soap and leave for 24 hours. Then spray the tomatoes.
The foliage will be rid of aphids by a decoction of onion peels, 200 grams of which should be poured with a bucket of warm water and left for 12-15 hours.
During the flowering period of celandine, you need to take 4 kg of the plant and leave it in a bucket of water for 2 days. This drug can get rid of caterpillars, larvae, and aphids.

Diseases of culture

There are more than 20 types of bacterial pathogens. Bacterial cancer has become widespread, causing wilting of shoots, yellowing of leaves along the edges, and curling. The fruits become covered with spots - first white, then yellowish. The plant dies on average 2 months after infection. During periods of prolonged rain, cancer spreads extremely widely, since humidity above 80% favors its development.

The leaves on a tomato also curl due to a disease that affects young plants, such as black spot, which is transmitted by seeds. When affected by spotting, dark spots appear on the fruits, and later you will notice that many of the leaves have curled and dried out.

Bacterial canker and black spot are not the only diseases. The cause is slightly less common, but destructive - bacterial spotting (mottling). With low temperatures and high humidity in early spring, planting tomatoes is especially dangerous due to the likelihood of infection with this bacterial disease. As it flows, the leaves curl, the flowers dry out and fall off.

Plants can be protected by the following measures:

use of bacterially resistant varieties;
timely control of weeds whose seeds can carry infection;
systematic removal of affected fruits;
thorough removal of plant debris from the soil surface before planting seedlings;
disinfecting the beds with a solution of potassium permanganate, which destroys bacteria that kill tomatoes.

Bacterial causes of leaf curl are serious; tomato fruits are difficult to cure. If a solution of potassium permanganate (you can mix it with a solution of urea) does not give a positive result, the infected plants will have to be destroyed.

Deficiency or excess of fertilizers

Why do tomato leaves curl if all conditions for favorable growth are met?

Tomatoes may not be enough melt nutrients.
The green color is lost, plant growth is stunted, the foliage curls - these are signs of nitrogen starvation.
If the leaves take on a grayish color, become wrinkled, yellowish and brittle, there is a potassium deficiency.
If there is a calcium deficiency, the lower leaves turn pale; if there is not enough boron, the stem turns black.
There may be a lack of magnesium, manganese, copper, which has a depressing effect on tomatoes. Flowers do not form on them, necrosis develops on the leaves.

It is preferable to carry out foliar feeding, which consists of spraying with nutrient solutions. It is important to observe the permissible concentration of the solution. For fertilizing, saltpeter, boric acid, solutions of manganese, zinc, copper sulfate, and ash are used.

Why do the leaves on tomatoes curl if there is enough fertilizing? Too much fertilizer can also cause leaves to curl, which tends to reduce photosynthesis. Chemical fumes can burn the foliage and stems of tomatoes. To reduce the concentration of fertilizers, you need to water the plants abundantly, washing the top layer of soil. You need to make sure that the water does not stagnate at the base of the bushes, otherwise the tomatoes will suffer from excess moisture.

Mistaken pinching

Tomatoes are very demanding plants and can slow down their growth and spoil even if all the above reasons are not present.

The reason may be that they were pinched or pinched incorrectly.

The process consists of pruning individual branches and removing stepsons. Care must be taken when cutting off more than 2 leaves per week, the rest may begin to curl, as mass cutting of too many branches and leaves upsets the balance between the rhizome and the outer part of the tomato. Too early, less than 3 weeks after planting, pinching and pinching the plants can also cause harm.

You can only get rid of stepchildren that have reached 7-8 cm, not forgetting to leave a stump about 1 cm long at the base of the stem. This is a guarantee that the shoot will no longer grow in this place. If you systematically remove all the stepsons, you will get a bush of 1 stem.

You can strengthen the power of the tomato root system by placing individual shoots in grooves and burying them there so that only the tops remain above the surface.

Why do tomato leaves curl (video)

Damage to the root system

When transplanting tomato seedlings from pots into the garden, it happens that due to carelessness, certain sections of the plant's roots turn out to be damaged. Why does this cause the leaves of tomatoes to turn yellow and curl? While the damaged areas of the root are being regenerated, the tomato does not receive adequate nutrition, so the consequences are the same as when plants are starved. Over time, the rhizome is restored, the plant takes root, and leaf curling stops.

It is important to know that some varieties of tomatoes have a characteristic feature - their leaves curl not due to diseases or unfavorable conditions, but curl naturally. Among them are varieties such as Honey Drop, Fatima, and cherry tomatoes.

Tomato diseases and ways to combat them (video)

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Curling of leaves in tomatoes that grow indoors can be noticed quite often. For the most part, such leaves can only be seen on individual tomato bushes, but sometimes almost all tomato plants planted on the site suffer from this. Let's look at the main reasons why tomato leaves begin to curl in a greenhouse and how to deal with it.

The increased air temperature in the greenhouse and the intense heat established when growing tomatoes leads to the fact that the moisture from them begins to evaporate rapidly, the turgor in the tissues drops, which is why the leaves of the plants begin to curl. To prevent this from happening, certain conditions must be created indoors so that the temperature does not rise above 25-30°C during the day for a long time.

If the temperature rises above 30°C, and even with low air humidity in a closed room, then in addition to curling of the leaves, plants may also shed flowers and already formed ovaries. The result of prolonged heat is often predictable and leads to a reduction in tomato yields.

You can quickly reduce the air temperature in a greenhouse if, after each watering, you open the doors and all the windows and leave them open for ventilation for a while.

You can also whiten the glass or film coating on the outside with chalk, lime, or cover it with a light cloth to create protection from the penetration of direct sunlight into the greenhouse. Tomatoes need to be watered more often in the morning and evening to increase the amount of water entering the plants. And in order to reduce the evaporation of moisture from the ground, it needs to be mulched with vegetable covering material: straw, hay, or agrofibre should be placed on the beds.

If the leaves on the tomatoes curl too much, you can help the plants by feeding them by spraying them with a urea solution. It is prepared at the rate of 1.5 tbsp. l. of this nitrogen fertilizer per 10 liters. Consumption rate – 1 liter for each tomato plant.

A sharp drop in temperature

Sudden changes in air temperature in a greenhouse can also cause the leaves of tomato seedlings to curl. For example, this can be observed after transplanting it to the main growing site, especially if the seedlings were not well hardened. In mature tomato plants grown in greenhouse conditions, leaves may also curl when exposed to cool air due to a sudden cold snap.

Improper watering: lack or excess of moisture

It is believed that the most common reason for the leaves of tomato plants to begin to curl and become deformed is improper watering: both lack and excess.

Tomatoes, as a crop, love an abundance of moisture, but it must be applied correctly: they should not be watered when necessary, and without immediately pouring a large amount of water under each bush, but regularly and in moderate portions. The frequency of watering, as well as violation of the dosage, causes the leaves of tomatoes to curl.

Plants that have just been planted in greenhouse beds (until they have taken root) suffer especially greatly from lack of moisture. At this time, they need to be watered as often as possible, but do not flood them, but water them in small volumes until they grow new roots. After this, subsequent irrigations should be carried out with a frequency of approximately 1-2 times every week. After mass flowering and during fruit formation, the plants begin to be watered again as often and as abundantly as possible to give the ripening fruits the opportunity to fill.

Signs of a lack of moisture that adult plants experience are the following - the leaves of tomatoes curl inward, forming tubes, as it were. This is a protective reaction of the tomatoes themselves - this is how they try to minimize the amount of moisture evaporated from the surface of the leaves. This condition of the leaves serves as a signal that you need to immediately start watering the plants. However, you don’t need to pour out too much water at once, so as not to provoke stress in the plants; it is better to water them a little every day, in small portions, so that the tomatoes are gradually saturated with moisture and can straighten the leaves.

If the leaves of tomatoes in a greenhouse curl upward, then this is not a sign of a lack, but, on the contrary, of an excess of moisture: in this way they increase evaporation and get rid of excess liquid coming from the roots from the soil. You can help the plants if you immediately stop watering and do not irrigate the tomatoes for about 1-2 weeks.

You can also prevent leaf curling by watering greenhouse plants at the appropriate time: not during the day, but in the mornings and evenings, when evaporation from plants is minimal. For irrigation, you need to take chlorine-free water or well water, but it must be warm (room temperature, but not cold, from which the plants receive temperature stress and their roots will not be able to draw moisture from the soil).

Excess or lack of fertilizers

It is known that without regular fertilizing there will be no good and abundant harvest of tomato fruits. But they need to be applied correctly, because both excess and deficiency of many microelements important for the life processes occurring in plants leads to a violation of their content in plant tissues, which causes curling of tomato leaves.

For example, if the edges of the leaf blades of tomatoes rise upward, as if there is an excess of moisture in the soil, but at the same time the lower part of the tomato bushes turns purple, then this is a sign of an excess of the trace element zinc in the soil. If there is a lot of manganese in it, then the tomato leaves first curl, then dry out and wrinkle even more, and acquire a bright green color. When there is an excess of nitrogen in the soil, the tops of tomatoes usually wilt. You can neutralize the effect of excess nitrogen on vegetating tomato plants by adding potassium fertilizers to the soil: potassium sulfate (8-10 g) or ordinary ash (50-80 g). This volume of fertilizer is calculated for 1 square. m. beds.

Calcium deficiency in the soil of tomato beds is manifested by the fact that the leaf blades curl upward, and blossom end rot appears on the fruits. The deficiency of the element can be eliminated by adding calcium nitrate to the soil (take about 20 g of fertilizer per bucket of water, add 0.35-0.4 kg of ash and 10 g of urea to it.). Pour this solution over 3-4 square meters. m of tomato plantings. If there is a lack of phosphorus in the soil, then the tomato leaves also curl and acquire a grayish color. Phosphorus, which is important for plants, can be added to the soil in the form of a solution of the well-known superphosphate fertilizer (80-90 g per bucket), which will need to be poured onto 3-4 square meters. m beds.

Copper deficiency in the soil manifests itself in the curling of tomato leaves and their acquisition of a yellow color that is not characteristic of the crop. Small yellow spots may also appear on their leaves, which then begin to turn black. You can feed tomato plants with copper if you treat them with copper-containing preparations, for example, copper oxychloride.

Damage to the root system

It often happens that the leaves of tomato seedlings, just planted in a greenhouse bed, quickly curl into a “ram’s horn”. This happens because the plants quickly lose moisture due to the root system being damaged due to negligence during planting. Sluggish plants take some time to recover after this, grow roots, and you can help them with this by frequently watering them and fertilizing as needed. After adaptation and rooting of seedlings, leaf curling in tomatoes is usually much less common.

Tomato diseases

Curling of leaves on tomato bushes in greenhouse conditions can also be observed in some diseases. Tomatoes can get sick under different circumstances: if they are densely planted, placed in areas where related nightshades used to grow, and if agrotechnical rules for growing plants are violated.

Among the diseases characteristic of tomatoes, stolbur disease has such a symptom as leaf curling. It is the appearance of this disease that can answer the question of why the tops of tomatoes wither, the top leaves of tomatoes become deformed and curled, and their color changes to light pink or purple. Another symptom by which stolbur disease can be identified is that the lower leaves of plants usually turn yellow. To treat this disease, you can use the drug Phytoplasmin, from which you can observe the maximum possible effect. Before spraying plants, prepare a working solution of this drug in accordance with the instructions supplied with it.

Why do the tops of tomato seedlings curl up?

Leaf curl can also be observed not only in mature tomato plants, but also in tomato seedlings that have recently been transplanted into greenhouses. The reasons why tomato tops curl in a greenhouse are as follows:

severe excess or deficiency of moisture;
cold earth that has not had time to warm up, combined with warm air;
cold weather;
heat and sun rays, quickly drying out plants;
dry air in the greenhouse;
lack or excess of nutrients in the soil (especially nitrogen);
small volume of containers in which seedlings are grown (there are not enough nutrients and oxygen in the soil).

Measures to combat leaf curl on tomato plants in greenhouse conditions are as follows:

growing seedlings in containers of sufficient volume, if necessary, transplanting them into containers more suitable in volume;
protection of plants with dense covering material from night cold snaps;
protection of tomatoes from sunlight by shading;
humidifying too dry air in greenhouses by spraying the soil with plain water;
feeding tomatoes with fertilizers prepared strictly in accordance with the recommendations given by the manufacturers of these products;
timely removal of stepsons and formation of a bush according to the scheme recommended for a particular tomato variety or hybrid;
feeding tomatoes with growth stimulants and complex fertilizers for their better development.

All these agrotechnical measures should help the gardener protect tomato seedlings and prevent or reduce the likelihood of curled and deformed leaves appearing on plants.