I am no pro on indoor plants. But 1st thing I would have is a moisure meter About 4 bucks at lowes. If moisture is correct then I would think about the soil. Most liquid fertilizers lock up nutrients over time. The soil might need to be changed. If it is in real tight in the pot a hack saw will cut it off real nice and quick. New soil and proper moisture cures most things. A treatment of fungicide while it is out of the pot is in order. I am a new snake oil convert. I use super thrive it works for me. You proably have some type of mineral defieciency. Well this covers 99.9% of possible problems. Domestic animals could be another source of your problem but then the above would cure it for a while. Good Luck, Jim

Old topic but wanted to share my input. I'm growing hydroponic tomatoes (various strains) at university in a lab setting (indoors under HID lights) and outdoors in a greenhouse. In one of my greenhouse NFT systems, i recently had a similar problem on 1 tomato plant (total 9 plants that share the same res and tubes). But im gonna try to diagnose your issue by mentioning what others missed out on. 1 major cause of leaf curl is compaction of root system (i.e. roots are compressed or dont have enough space to expand). This risk is exacerbated in hydroponic systems that use tubes. This was the problem i had and had to replace tubes with square tubings that have a liftable top. Once you have access to roots, you must seperate them strand by strand (i.e. so they arent sticking together). In your setup, this risk will further be exacerbated because you filled the entire pvc tube with hydroton (right?). Remove hydroton from tube and place the plant in a net cup with hydroton. Nitrogen burns usually cause browning/yellowing of leaves (similar to sun/heat burn) and not purpling. Test your solution for each chemical if possible, or use a commonly employed aggregated measuring device that shows total concentration in ppm (dont let it exceed 2500). In my system, only one plant was affected. Coincidentally, it was the largest of all plants with the most root mass. I let another normal one grow to its size to see whether it would undergo the same problem, and it did. Viral and bacterial infections that cause leaf roll usually cause it to roll up. Same with the physiological roll. If your leafs roll down AND if your stems bend, this is caused by a diminishing turgor pressure (read: not enough water reaching afflicted area). Mist several times when lights are off (no photosysnthesis) and observe increasing turgor pressure (unbending). Or, untangle roots and remove hydroton from from pipes. I tested various growing methods including fully and partially submerged roots. They all work but a submerged root cannot intake oxygen; it has to borrow oxygen from another part of the plant (i.e. a root part that isnt submerged or above ground stem). This requires energy for transportion and isnt the most efficient (optimal) way for growth and cellular processes. Lastly, an airstone in the reservoir is useless unless the reservoir is completely airtight all the way up to the plant holes. Better to keep small airstones in the pipes right under the plant roots. Those that say aerating the res prevents bacterial development.. is false. If you dont have air in res, you will get anaerobic bacteria (they grow/accumulate slowly but acidify the solution); if you have air in res, you get aerobic bacteria (not acidifying but grow extremely fast). Most bacteria prefer aerobic environments for optimum growth.

Hi Sumilea - leaf roll and curling stems are signs of physical stress on plants but usually correct themselves. It a normal response of the plant and once the plant adapts to the stressor or the source of the stress disappears so do the symptoms. Transplanting, excess top growth vs. root development, too much fertilizer, excess water or inconsistent soil moisture levels, etc. - you name it ;) are all stressing factor and can result in unusual appearance. But it is almost always transient. So control the causes that you can control and trust the plant to take care of the rest with some time. ;) If you haven't already, you'll want to do some for-future-benefit research on "leaf roll" as it is one of the common spring problems - lots of posts on it here. Dave

Steve and I both would prune a significant amount of the tree's less valued branches so that the reduced root structure's water/nutrient uptake would match up better with the amount of upper growth still on the trunk. For me, since I did not see how much of the original root structure got whacked off, I would prune away at least half of the upper branches. When I uproot and replant trees, I always let the uprooted tree's root system sit submerged in a pool/pond/container of water that has a good amount of Super Thrive mixed in and let it soak for 1 to 2 days before replanting the tree. I prune the appropriate amount of branches prior to the soaking so that the whole tree in it's chopped up form will be fully hydrated and fueled up with life sustaining nutrients as it goes through the trauma. I am sure that using other root stimulators can be helpful also. Winter sure is a better time to do this...... when possible. If you choose to leave the entire branch structure unpruned, it is possible that the tree will more easily dry up and die. Stated differently, if a family's income got whacked off by 50%, the family would no longer be able to spend what they used to, so spending practices would need to be reduced by 50% to match up with the revised income.