Tomato leaves curling up is a natural occurrence that often frustrates tomato gardeners. The thing about this phenomenon is that it’s actually quite easy to prevent and control if you know the cause of it. Here are some tips on how to stop tomato leaves from curling so your plants can grow healthy and strong.
How to cure tomatoes leaves curling up
- Make sure there is adequate water, sun, nutrients, and space for your plant’s root system. Don’t let it get pot locked.
- Prune back any leafless or diseased branches. (Note: Curled leaves that are green should NOT be pruned unless sick or for another reason)
- Provide protection from insects like aphids with an insecticide spray, or natural plant barriers that repel bugs.
- Avoid too much nitrogen fertilizer.
- If the leaves are curling away from a particular side of the plant, that could be a sign of bacterial wilt. It’s important to diagnose this as soon as possible because it can spread quickly and kill your plants if not treated promptly with an appropriate chemical.
- Overwatering can cause the leaves to turn yellow and curl up, cut back if you tend to be heavy on the water trigger.
- Warm weather can contribute to leaf curling, give them more shade if it gets too hot.
It is important to make sure that your tomato plants are getting adequate water, sunlight, nutrients, and space. Prune back any leafless or diseased branches as well. Giving the plant protection from insects with an appropriate insecticide spray will help ensure the success of your tomatoes too.
Too much light
Sometimes it’s not too little light and actually too much light. If you believe that your tomato plants are getting too much light, provide more shade.
What To Do: This can be accomplished by planting larger trees/bushes/tall vegetables or providing a covering for the area where they grow.
This is much more common these days for some reason. Probably due to a solar cycle or pollution or something!
Make sure your soil isn’t too compacted.
If you don’t till your garden each season, the soil may have started to become compacts by foot traffic and just general settlement of the earth around it. This can cause a variety of problems for your tomato plants due to oxygen and water intake being strangled by the compacted earth.
To fix this: Tilling your garden each season can help to loosen the soil and make it easier for oxygen and water to get down into the plant roots. Transplanting an already affected plant is also an option.
Cold weather
If it’s the end of the growing seasons and cold weather has set in, Then that’s very likely the reason for the curling.
It is actually just the natural response of many plant species when stressed by cold temperatures. The curled leaves will eventually turn brown before dying off and dropping from the plant.
To fix this: Bring it inside somewhere warm and allow it to continue producing, Or allow nature to take it’s course.
If it isn’t the end of the season and your hit with a cold snap, That plant should recover on its own unless it’s been damaged too badly. Entire crops have been wiped out by cold snaps.
In conclusion
Tomatoes thrive when they are given plenty of water, sunlight, and nutrients. Pruning diseased or leafless branches will help the rest of the plant grow more effectively. Insect-proofing your garden is also important to ensure that your tomato crops don’t decline due to pests. If you avoid these problems, that your leaf curl should disappear in no time.