Tomato leaf curl virus
Posted by ajcann on May 27, 2007
Tomato leaf curl is a virus that does unspeakable things to a tomato plant.
The insect-borne virus that has killed tomato plants across Central America, Florida and Georgia has been detected in California for the first time.
Tomatoes are California’s eighth largest crop. The state supplies the vast majority of the USA’s processed tomatoes - 95 percent.
The first diseased plants were found in March in a greenhouse near the border with Mexico.
The virus causes tomato plants to become stunted and grow abnormally upright. Flowers usually fall off before the fruit sets and leaves are small and crumpled with an upward curl, turning yellow.
June 12, 2007 at 12:02 am
Has this been reported in Ohio? My healthy tomato seedlings (various hybrid varieties) have all become stunted with curled leaves. I have never seen this before and have grown tomatoes for many years.
June 12, 2007 at 8:14 am
Which direction do the leaves curl? With this virus, the leaves curl upwards There are lots of reasons tomato leaves can curl, but in most cases the curl downwards. Try this link:
http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf171119.tip.html
June 12, 2007 at 2:34 pm
It looks like I might have two of my plants affected in Michigan. I heve planted 15-20 plants in the same area for 15+ years and have never seen this before. The other plants are almost 18″ tall, vigorous and have many flowers. Usually, I have the best results in my circle of friends.
June 16, 2007 at 2:54 am
Have had the same symptoms here in East Tennessee. Better boy, early girl and the tomato tree. I have been mystified as to the cause, and now I know what it is. I am going to pull the plants and burn them, but I wonder if this will persist.
June 25, 2007 at 4:06 am
I have what looks like leaf curl in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I live in a rural area and have a large garden with 30+ tomato plants. I have never seen this. Can it be beaten w/o killing the plants? I have tried a combination of Pyola and SoapShield with no luck!?!
June 26, 2007 at 10:35 am
Folks, if you have these symptoms in tomatoes from as widespread an area as you all come from in the US…contact a USDA official SOON, and/or Dr Judy Brown at Univ Arizona (jbrown@Ag.arizona.edu) or Dr Jane Polston at U Florida (jep@ufl.edu) - because you are part of a serious and growing problem. Tomato leaf curl disease - most probably caused in your areas by Tomato yellow leaf curl begomovirus (TYLCV) from Israel (long story…
is now present in both east and west coasts and is coming up via Mexico. Check out http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/AG224 and http://ag.arizona.edu/pls/faculty/brown.html for some extra info.
June 27, 2007 at 3:20 am
i also have tomato leaf curl…i purchased bonnie plants..i contacted them and they told me to try mulch…i’ll see what that does…i have two tomato plants in pots on my deck and they both are curling..never saw this before
July 18, 2007 at 5:34 am
I live in Dayton, OH and I have this happening to my tomato plant too. Just one of them a cherokee tomato. The other one I don’t have a tag but it does not have this problem with the leaves.
August 27, 2007 at 7:11 am
[...] emergence means that there is an ever-increasing number of them in genome databases - and in people’s fields, which lab virologists tend to forget all too easily. The viruses are fascinating for a number of [...]
April 18, 2008 at 12:37 am
living in the phoenix valley of arizona - my three tomatoe plants have succumbed as well. bummer.