Right now, tomato vines should be dark green and spreading out their leaves to catch the sun’s energy. When their leaves curl up and look like clubs you know something has gone wrong.
Q. I am having a terrible time with my tomatoes this year. The top leaves curl and they stop growing. The stems also seem to have cankers that distort them. I have been researching what the cause may be and have arrived at no one explanation. Could be a virus, something in the soil, fungus or other. I have sprayed with neem oil. I mixed cow manure from my neighboring farm into my compost, so I wonder if an herbicide got in that way.
— P.S., Amherst
A. Your picture of tightly curled tomato leaves suggests herbicide injury, not any kind of fungus, virus, bacterium or environmental factor. Perhaps someone sprayed weed killer in the vicinity of your garden and air currents or wind took the droplets and mist toward your tomatoes. Lawns and pastures sometimes are treated with products containing 2,4-D, an ingredient found in many different herbicide products well known for airborne damage to non-target plants, such as tomatoes. Herbicides in the manure certainly are another possibility. Hopefully, you already have planted some new tomato plants.
Q. We have been gardening for decades and have never dealt with whiteflies before. Recently we have been experiencing an invasion of them on our tomatoes and peppers, as well as a variety of flowers. We have sprayed with insecticidal soap and neem oil extract. What would you recommend?
— M. Ross, Lynchburg
A. Whiteflies are difficult pests, often introduced to gardens from infested plants brought home from the store. You can try spraying to control them, while keeping in mind the fact cold weather probably will kill them this winter. Among the products suggested in the 2020 Pest Management Guide published by Virginia Cooperative Extension for whiteflies in vegetables and flowers are those containing canola oil, horticultural oil and the two you mentioned. Permethrin also is registered for whitefly control, though it is not used in organic gardening.
Q. What do you think is killing my rhododendrons and boxwoods? Anything I can do to reverse this?
— S.B., Lynchburg
A. Your photos show what could be damage from an insect called rhododendron borer and a fungal disease called boxwood blight. Borers frequently are a problem for the various hybrid rhododendrons growing in home and commercial landscapes. Control involves pruning and fertilizing and sometimes spraying with insecticides. For a complete description of the boxwood blight situation, you can go online and click on Best Management Practices for Boxwood Blight in the Virginia Home Landscape.
Q. Will cutting back my cantaloupes’ runners to about six feet kill the plants or ruin their productivity? As you know, they send runners out that can reach eight to 10 feet and that takes up a lot of space. I do not care if it means getting fewer cantaloupes.
— D.M., Lynchburg
A. Light pruning should be fine.
Don Davis is a retired Virginia Cooperative Extension agent. He can be reached at dodavis2@vt.edu.
Don Davis is a retired Virginia Cooperative Extension agent. He can be reached at dodavis2@vt.edu.
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July 10, 2020 at 02:30AM
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Don Davis: Curled leaves a sign of tomato troubles - Lynchburg News and Advance
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