Tobacco Mosaic Virus or Environmental Stress?

[widespreadpanic]

I've got a major problem with my tomatoes. The branches are curling/coiling up and the leaves are leathery and brittle and also curling upwards. The new growth doesn't have this problem, it starts with the older leaves and works upward. My plants did the same thing last year, I'm wondering if the Tobacco Mosaic Virus was the culprit last year and now this year it has been re-infected. I don't know much about the TMV, and what I've read online hasn't convinced me whether or not this is the problem.

The fruit seems to be developing normally. I thought perhaps the issue was an environmental issue, here's a list of things I've altered checked:

Started using reverse osmosis water instead of tap water.

Changed nutrients from GH Floramato to Hydro-Gardens commercial tomato formula.



Altered flood/drain schedule various different ways.
None of these changes had any effect.

I have a garden hose with a metal end attached to a pump that is attached to my aquarium chiller. Could the low ph of the water be degrading the metal and producing some sort of metal toxicity?

Also I have a family of tree frogs living in my reservoir so there is a small amount of frog excrement in my reservoir.

All of my plants are different types of heirloom tomatoes.

Thanks for your time to read this and hopefully help me with a diagnosis and solution.

[Rkfm]

What is your pH?

[widespreadpanic]

More details since the feedback I'm getting seems to pointing towards user error.

my ph stays from 5.8-6.2

my reservoir temp is 69-72 degrees

outdoor temp is in the low to mid eighties

my current flood cycle is every two hours, I have also tried once every six hours.

my e.c. is 1.0-1.5, I have tried higher amounts but the plants didn't seem to feed more.

I have been mixing my nutrients (chem-gro 4-18-38, calcium nitrate, magnesium sulfate) to the manufacturers instructions with reverse osmosis water.

The only thing I haven't done is add calcium chloride as directed by manufacturer since my base water has under 50 ppm calcium.

Could it be a calcium deficiency?

[Rkfm]

The yellow leaves with green veins points to a micro nutrient deficiency, either Zinc, Manganese or Iron (if those are young leaves). A calcium deficiency would be tip burn and/or brown spots.

The leaf curl is pretty common depending on the cultivar, and it isn't a serious problem.

Maybe leach the solution and try some CalMag?

I had the same symptoms briefly on my tomato plants but it went away after a res change. I think it was an iron deficiency from my pH being off.

[widespreadpanic]

I recently leached the system for 36 hours with straight reverse osmosis water. I drained the system once during that period and refilled so that by the end of the 36 hours, after many floodings, the TDS was 30 ppm.

I then followed the instructions exactly on my chem-gro fertilizer, with the exception of not adding calcium chloride (don't have it). They said that if calcium in base water was below 50 ppm to add it.

[GpsFrontier]

What do the roots look like?