Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Knowing when not to panic: Tomato plant story with happy ending
Knowing when it’s appropriate to panic and when it’s better to keep a level head is useful in any aspect of life. It’s also a big help in the garden, where so many unexpected things can happen. I’m speaking particularly of those instances when “can happen” translates to “go wrong.”
Tomato plants — Burpee’s “Early Girl” and “Better Boy” — went into the garden on May 19, pretty much on time. In the early days of the pandemic, I couldn’t find the heirloom varieties I wanted. These two are what I could get at my local garden center. The plants took off, and soon they were over four feet tall. (Both varieties are “indeterminate,” meaning that they continue to grow, rather than topping out at a specific height.) On June 10, we spotted the first little tomatoes starting to form. Yay! Exactly one month later, on July 10, I noticed that some of the leaves had started to curl. Uh-oh.
The fact that the leaves were curling wasn’t an immediate cause for alarm. Something as simple as insufficient water is enough to cause this and it’s easy to test. You just make sure to apply ample water for a few days. If the plants recover, everything is fine. If the leaf curl persists and starts affecting more and more of the plant, then something “has happened.”
In this case, the leaves did not revive. I’m pretty sure that what my tomato plants fell prey to is something called, simply enough, “leaf curl.” It’s a virus (full name: Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl virus) that’s transmitted/carried by insects such as aphids and leafhoppers. I thought immediately about removing and destroying the plants, but from what I’d read, the virus is specific to tomatoes, and didn’t represent a threat to any of the other vegetables. I decided to wait and see what would happen.
The curling continued, but then seemed to stabilize; there was no further damage. There was also no further growth or new flowers. Fortunately, though, the dozens of tomatoes already formed continued to grow and then to ripen. We ended up with a pretty hefty — and delicious — harvest.
Eventually, though, the day came that we ate the last of the tomatoes — so sad to have this occurring mid-summer. And then something completely unexpected happened. About a week later, I took a closer look at some of the curledup leaves at the tops of the tomato plants. I saw that the leaves weren’t curled because of the virus. They were curled over on themselves because they were trapped in the bird netting we’d put over the plants to keep the birds and the deer from eating the fruits.
Amazingly, there was a ton of new, lush, healthy growth emerging, and there were even flowers. Coincidentally, according to my garden journal, this was on August 10, exactly a month after first noticing the leaf curl. We carefully cut apart the netting and untangled the leaves as best we could. In scarcely a week, the crumpled-up leaves have straightened out, and the new growth looks healthy, lush, and beautiful — lots of emerging fruits and plenty of blossoms. The plants are now over five feet tall and climbing. We’re so excited about these plants having a new lease on life and are looking forward to a renewed harvest, hopefully right up until the first frost. How glad I am that I didn’t panic, and just let the plants be.
Note: Thanks to all of you who submitted entries in response to my “Homegrown National Park” contest. Look for the results in an upcoming column.
Pam Baxter is an avid organic vegetable gardener who lives in Kimberton. Direct e-mail to pamelacbaxter@gmail. com, or send mail to P.O. Box 80, Kimberton, PA 19442. Share your gardening stories on Facebook at “Chester County Roots.” Pam’s book for children and families, Big Life Lessons from Nature’s Little Secrets, is available on Amazon, along with her companion field journal, Explore Outdoors, at Amazon.com/ author/pamelabaxter.