Curling Tom Leaves

[Marb67]

These seemingly healthy tomato plants have been curling their leaves for a few days. I have kept them watered as norm but no idea why the leaves are curling. Should I just snip them off so they will produce more fruit or is this yet another failure in my big book or garden woes ??

[nickdub]

The roots not quite able to supply as much water as the plant needs in the hot weather I expect. When things cool down again, the plants will probably be OK.

[Marb67]

I hope so as they are doing well up to now.

[quanglewangle]

In my experience once tomato leaves have curled they don't uncurl.
But on the plus side, most of my plants have at least some curled leaves and are doing fine and yielding good crops.

[Marb67]

Perhaps it best to cut them off then ?

[Snoop Puss]

Mine are looking like they've been in rollers after the heat and wind we've had these last two days. So long as they're a decent colour, they'll still be photosynthesising. I wouldn't cut them off until they're doing the plant no good (going brown and crispy in my case).

It's worth removing leaves that go yellow or brown and limp. And towards the end of the season, when the weather turns damp, you might think about taking more off to improve ventilation as a way to combat blight. But in the interim, I'd leave any green leaves where they are, especially if it's warm and sunny where you are. The fruit will benefit from the shade they provide rather than getting sun scorch.

[ameno]

Perhaps it best to cut them off then ?

No, leave them. The curled leaves will do the plant no harm, and they are still functioning leaves.

As others have head, high temperatures often cause tomato leaves to curl. It's common, and the curling in and of itself is harmless and nothing to worry about, although the heat can cause other problems, so curling leaves are a signal that it's too hot and you should try to cool things down if you can.

[Plot70]

In Spain and Italy they have to put sun shades over there tomatoes in order to stop leaf curl.
I have had a bit on some that are outside and they are setting fruit. The first few leaves went dark due to the cold at the start.

[Marb67]

But you need sun to ripen the fruit.

[ameno]

But you need sun to ripen the fruit.

The sun shades don't block all of the light, just some of it.
Too much sunlight is harmful to some plants. It can scorch the leaves and fruits.

[Snoop Puss]

Absolutely can vouch for sun scorch on tomatoes (fruit and leaves) and peppers, sadly.