What is causing second leaf deformed beans and tomatoes?

[DougH]

With my last couple of Brown Beauty bean plantings I have noticed that germination and first leaf growth appear to be normal, however second leaf growth is stunted and deformed.

I have also the same issue with my Mini Roma tomato seedling. After planting growth appeared to be normal and then new growth was once again was stunted and deformed.

I have done some research and there is a possibility that this issue could be viral or herbicidal related.

As a possible unrelated observation I have a Jacaranda that has been lopped also has stunted and deformed new growth.

Any suggestion would be appreciated.

[EricL]

Hello @DougH 

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's sensational to have you join us, and thanks for sharing your question about your tomato plant.

It might be a leaf curl virus or as you mentioned herbicide related. Leaf curl often happens when you have an infestation of leaf miners, but it does not appear to have any tell-tale tracks on the leaves. I also suggest having a look at this guide - How to diagnose a sick plant by @Noelle.

Let me call on our experienced members @Noelle and @mich1972 for their opinion regarding the deformed leaves of the tomato plant.

In the meantime, I propose using Seasol on the plants and observing if any other symptoms appear. 

If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.

Eric

[Noelle]

Hi @DougH 

Welcome to the Community.

If just the beans and tomato were affected then I'd suggest the leaf curl and stunted growth could be herbicide-related but it is extremely doubtful that any spray drift would have that sort of an effect high up on a recently lopped jacaranda.In my opinion, the symptoms of the vegies and unrelated to those on the jacaranda

My suspicions lie with viral disease and, unfortunately, there are no treatments available for viruses. If you leave affected vegie plants growing in your garden, there's a very high chance the disease will spread via sap-sucking insects to healthy plants. My recommendation would be to remove all affected plants, and start again in another area of the garden - don't replant into the same soil.

The jacaranda is reacting the way many established trees do - they product masses of new shoots that look stunted and crowded together. Eventually most will die due to competition, with only the healthiest thriving to grow into sturdy new branches.

[DougH]

@Noelle

Thanks for your reply and suggestions.

Unfortunately I don't have the option of moving to another area of the garden as these are raised beds in a greenhouse. I have recently had a problem with nematodes so I replaced all the soil, after washing the garden bed retaining walls, leaving empty for two months before refilling and not planting for another month.

So I am at loss as to what is the cause.

As an experiment I have planted a few bean seeds in a planter box with new potting mix well removed from the greenhouse garden beds. I will now wait and see.

Any further suggestions would be appreciated.

Regards

DougH

[Noelle]

Hi again @DougH 

Virus diseases are spread by sap-sucking insects, such as aphids and white fly, that transfer sap from infected plants somewhere in your neighborhood to clean plants. All you can do, if you do decide to start over, is to erect frames and enclose the beds in fine insect netting to try to exclude these pests, which can invade greenhouses quite easily.

If your current plants are virus-affected, they may still crop but yields and quality are likely to be significantly affected.

[DougH]

Hi @Noelle 

Since we last spoke I have been experimenting with growing the same bean seeds separately in new potting mix and in the raised bed garden soil away from the greenhouse. The seeds in the potting mix have germinated and appear to be developing as you would expect. However the seeds in the garden soil germinated but are underdeveloped and deformed. This result has led me to suspect that the problem may not be viral but soil related. I have come to this conclusion as I have replaced all the soil in the raised garden beds, because of a nematode problem, and the replacement soil may have a high salt content. 

I believe that a high salt content in soil could cause the issues I have seen.

Would appreciate your thoughts on this.

Regards

Doug

[Noelle]

Hi @DougH 

Your hypothesis is entirely possible - if the soil has a high total soluble salts content than that could cause distortion of leaves. Sounds like you are on the right track at least. High total salinity can affect the uptake of nutrients, among other symptoms, which may result in distortion.

What to do about it? Irrigation with known clean is probably your only option, to flush the excess salts through the soil.