Little Leaf syndrome

[Barb_FL]

It's very late in my season and gardening during the summer starting in June in Florida is no fun. However, I would still like to know what is wrong with these plants. All are grown in Earthboxes in my backyard.

I have checked the leaves on all of the plants for anything microscopic with nothing detected. All of the stems, on all of the plants are very brittle; I can make clean snaps off the plant.

The first plant acts like TYLCV however no whiteflies, no yellowing, etc so it's something else. Barely any fruit set; blossoms snap off.

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The next 3 pictures are all different plants in separate earthboxes that were all perfect not too long ago with new growth started getting the little leaf system.

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[Clkeiper]

my first guess is a nutritional deficiency.... boron.

[AZGardener]

herbicide drift? That's my guess.

[Ginger2778]

Panel 2 and 4 look like herbicide drift to me. I have no idea about 1 and 3, other than heat and wind, and humidity. And i think that's why the blossoms are all brittle, just heat and humility, cant form much fruit. I surely do not see fungus or virus.

[peebee]

I agree about herbicide drift, as it happened to me once. It came over from a neighbor's fence. I went over to ask that he let me know in advance next time so I can try to cover my plants. He was horrified & had no idea. Luckily I have nice neighbors.

[Barb_FL]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I appreciate you all taking the time to diagnosis; Herbicide drift is fairly alarming. I'm glad my season is about done.

[Shule]

The leaf patterns at the top of your post look a lot like TMV. Have you ruled it out?

[Growing Coastal]

I looked online and found this which, due to your location, may be what's going on.
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible ... ndrome.htm

also
https://plantpath.ifas.ufl.edu/u-scout/ ... -leaf.html


interesting

[peebee]

After reading the articles, maybe [mention]Growing Coastal[/mention] is right, since you mentioned how brittle the stems are. I don't recall if mine were brittle since I didn't try breaking any stems. I just pulled the plants out.

[Barb_FL]

Thanks Growing Coastal - the leaves look exactly like that although the fruit isn't deformed and does have seeds.

As far as brittle; I can take an entire side stem with lots of branches, etc and just snap it off cleanly.

We had a lot of rain since Memorial Day so tomatoes are splitting regardless.

[PlainJane]

Looks/sounds right [mention]Growing Coastal[/mention]. I’ve got some of it going on here in N. Florida as well.
(On top of the usual dang disease horrors.)

[Clkeiper]

LLS... I honestly have never heard of it until this thread. interesting that there doesn't seem to be a real diagnosis of what it actually is caused by. It really looks like a nutritional deficiency to me but not being able to utilize nutrients int he soil would mimic a lack of some nutrients. I have never seen anything like that here and maybe we don't have it here either. I really don't like living where it is cold in the Winter but we also don't have a lot of the insect and disease pressure associated with warmer weather.

[Growing Coastal]

I find it interesting to read about what goes on with tomatoes in other places. I've had tomatoes with smaller leaves as the plant uses up the fertilizer in its pot but never anything that looks like LLS. Never had herbicidal drift either. It is amazing how similar LLS looks to herbicide damage.
It all makes me feel lucky about our tomato growing conditions. We can get some issues but nothing like what happens in warmer places. I never have to use chemical treatments for diseases or pests. However, I too dislike cold winters.

[AZGardener]

I looked online and found this which, due to your location, may be what's going on.
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible ... ndrome.htm

also
https://plantpath.ifas.ufl.edu/u-scout/ ... -leaf.html


interesting

I've not heard of little leaf syndrome before. Thank you for the links, interesting information.