Diary of a Rocket Gardener…curly leaves?

Last year I had a bit of a tomato fail. I failed to water my tomatoes regularly enough and quite a few of them suffered from blossom end rot as a result. I also failed to put them in big enough pots. And I failed to feed them. This year, I’ve tried harder. I water them well more or less every day, they’ve got better quality soil in a raised bed and I’ve given them a generous dose of wormcast fertiliser and compost. So in theory they should be magnificent. And they are. Except for one, small, tiny little leafy problem: Their leaves (mostly lower ones) are curling inward and upward.

I investigated this and as far as I could tell there are three potential causes.

  1. They are stressed out by the weather. Cold, wet weather can cause lower leaves to curl upwards.
  2. They’ve suffered from irregular watering. This can cause leaves to curl.
  3. They’ve been infected by pesticides blowing in.

So this left me with a bit of an unsolved mystery. It hasn’t exactly been cold and wet. They’re in the greenhouse so they’ve been warm and dry even on the few days when it has been wet. And I’ve watered them pretty thoroughly throughout the season. And I don’t use any pesticides or chemicals at all.

I continued to investigate, and then I read something which made a lot of sense. Apparently, overwatering can cause leaf curl as well. Oh. Have I possibly overcompensated for not looking after my tomato babies well enough last year? Have I drowned the poor things? I’m not quite sure yet, but I’ve decided to hold off on watering them for a few days and then will try to keep them a little drier. A good balance of not too wet and not too dry. Fingers crossed!