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 everyone... I am late checking in today...busy day in the garden, (again). Tis the season! I've been reading through the posts here, absorbing as much info as I can, and in one sitting, that's a lot to take in. Sooo much good advice, and I must say, it's really helpful. Dawn, backing up a bit, I had to laugh about that neighbor of yours, she reminded me of that British woman who played the part of the overbearing wife with the hen pecked husband in the comedy show on OETA, "Keeping up Appearances". I'll bet anything when that lady's husband told her what Dawn said about the tomatoes, she went and ripped them out either in embarressment or anger/or both. Well, I did check out the tomatoe forum, and found a few good tips. One of the problems with that forum, you already gave me a head's up on. For a less experienced gardener, (as self here)one would have to discern what was good advice, and what was not. Still, it was interesting browsing and looking at some of the pics. One of the ideas you gave me was that I have double windows on the front of my house, which faces west. I have just made a rustic trellis and lashed it together. I think it looks pretty cool. This is replacing the one that just wore out after several years. Anyways, I usually grow Purple Hyacinth vines on that trellis, to block that sun and shade those windows,.... and I have some started this year as well. I thought since the Black Cherry tomatoes grow so "viney" and tall, I might plant one or two right in the middle, bordered on each side by the Hyacinth vines. I would never have the space to winter store a bunch of tomatoe cages for as many tomatoes as I'm growing this year, so I generally use fence trellis's for good or bad, they seem to work okay for me. And yes, I like the idea of letting the vines "flop" over. It used to bother me when they'd start doing that, but now I'll just let em do their thing and not worry about it. About cutworm protection. My dad used to put a 16 penny nail just at the edge of each newly planted tomatoe. It must have worked for him. I don't know if other folks do that or not. Jay, your gardening techniques seem really well adapted to your climate out there. It must get pretty challenging at times. There are times when I wish for "few trees", since as I've said before on this forum, my neighbors humongous tree's have roots that sneak over in my garden area because they know there is water and food over here. If I didn't have good sandy loam I'd be done for. I ran into some of those feeder roots today when I was out there digging holes for the fall tomatoes I'll soon be planting. I put extra homemade compost in each hole to at least make sure they get a good start. No "sprawling" for my tomatoes. For several reasons, space, rot,.......and snakes. Ill be growing Old Time Tennesse and Evan's Sweet muskmelons and Blacktail Mountain watermelons on some cattle panels that I have. I have to grow vertically wherever I can, to save space, and I think it looks neater, and keeps you from having to bend over so much. It might discourage pests, I don't know. I have found that snakes like to hang out, (literally) on any kind of vines tho. Weather or not, your still pretty blessed up and over there. I grew some beautiful tomatoes in Wyoming, but we only had three months time to do it in. There is no such thing as spring and fall gardening in Wyoming. I've known it to have an 8 ft snowfall in May, and early snow in August. Sure feels good to be back in Okie again :) All in all, what we are able to grow without being spoon fed genetically modified stuff on the market, makes all the labor intensive work and challenges well worth the effort we put into our gardens. It really does have to be a labor of love, and one has to love doing it. And we do. Shekanahh

OSGW, You're welcome. If you wanna talk tomatoes, I'm always available and could talk tomatoes forever. : ) Of course, if you've read the posts on this forum for more than a week, you already know that. And, I should mention that there are many marvelous heirloom paste and plum tomatoes available from Sandhill Preservation Center that I haven't tried yet. There's so many tomatoes......and so little time. I still hope others will add their favorites. And I'm still working on my list of tomato varieties to grow for 2009.....just like Santa, "making a list and checking it twice". And I would like to add Mariseeds (www.mariseeds.com) as another potential source, and Totally Tomatoes (www.totallytomatoes.com) too. The only thing with Mariseeds is that Marianna loves every variety she sells and her descriptions reflect that and sort of "gush" about the qualities of each one. And, Totally Tomatoes is NOT totally tomatoes although it was once upon a time, but it does have a nice selection of tomatoes. Some of the smaller seed companies, like Marianna's and Sandhill probably won't have their websites updated for 2009 until after Christmas though. Dawn

Daren, Thanks so much for adding some real-world growing info and the great F3 data!!! In the end that is what will make the difference in whether there will be interest for anyone to actually make the effort to grow it. I think your comment on not sour (vs. acidity) and mine may be both accurate ... and the thing you don't like about the taste ... my problem too ... and what I wonder most is if yours were imported or grown right there in Ontario, not kept cold so long and picked closer to maturity = sweeter, low acid. The reason IMO that Sungold has that fruity taste is that it truely is low acid and extremely high sugar. It is more related to the sugar:acid ratio that give a sweet taste. The lingering aftertaste is fruity sweet in SG where Zima lingers more acid. And the acid hits my dentin and turns into acute dental pain on the next bite for me, so I notice ;-(. The first ones I ate were somewhat sweet, but once the experience is ruined by an aching tooth ... never happened with Santa nor any of my home grown 'maters. I just went to my grocer yesterday who has a few clamshells left over from the Zima promotion over three weeks ago, asking if they would just give me the ones with a few rotting ones inside instead of throwing those away. They told me, "They are not attracting flies yet" so we keep them (as if they could through that clamshell ... and there was one fruit fly ;-)) The tomatoes were from the shipment I bought and ate around 10 days ago, and a few began shriveling and three or four covered in gray mold but mostly they were still hard bullets. He told me to visit the dumpster in a few days if I wanted them since he would be fired for giving me the rotten tomatoes! (in which case I would have given anyone some for free via SASE). I explained I just wanted the seeds but you should have seen the look I got as the store manager who didn't grasp it so he told me if I wanted the seeds, why not buy the rotten packages from him for $4. each ;-) Thanks Daren, we have the same interest I think, so I'm going to look into the kumatos one of these days. Down here in Florida I have my first Santa F2 going and it is a race, but I think I'll make it. One plant really looks strong. It will be a good one to get some F3's since some nice grape shaped tomatoes have started and survived back to back 41 degree nights in a cold snap, which killed a few flowers on Better Boy and Cherokee Purple, and made fused blossoms on other varieties. It is performing just as well as my Supersweet 100's, but three weeks later, due to a later planting date by three weeks. Maybe when I get my Santa F3's in a month weather permitting we could swap some if you want. Did you try the Nectar hybrid tomato that is supposed to be super duper sweet, and very low acid? 10 seeds for $4-$5! PC This post was edited by PupillaCharites on Sat, Nov 8, 14 at 13:51