Is this a virus?
 

Unfortunately my two pink berkeley tie dye plants didnt make it this year. This pictures are from May. I have been meaning to post them to the forum to get some feedback. I have assumed this was a virus that came along with the starts from the nursery and not something contracted in my garden. Thoughts?

That would be a safe assumption since it was specific to those two plants

That variety didn't do well for me. In fact, nearly all the striped varieties I have tried here are disease prone and don't make it. Read up on Southern Stem Blight. Very prolific in the south. You'll know from the whitish fungus at ground level just above and just below the soil line on the stem. A helpful preventative is to wrap the stem (just below and just above soil line) with aluminum foil at planting time. I wrapped all my maters this year and still managed to lose 1 plant (out of 36) so far to SSB.
I see you are growing in containers. SSB naturally occurs in the ground soil, so it would've had to somehow contaminated the containers.

Thanks for the replies. Is it safe to assume that unusual growth at the top of the plant is either herbicide or viral? The new leaves were all really curly and clumped closely together.

If the plants died, it looks like either herbicide or curly-top virus.


If they were continued to grow strong, then likely something else (I'm dealing with similar issue, mine are growing super strong).

Here is another pic from earlier this year. I moved the plant to the other side of the garden and abandoned it. Through drought and neglect it seems to have recovered. I am going to take cuttings from it as an experiment to see if I can get it's "offspring" to grow during the fall season.

Yes of Res many plants that seem to be infected is having roof restriction or need to be planted in direct sunlight, especially if you're growing Organic like me. . Your Tomato plant is loving that Cardboard. I have these 4th of July Tomato Plants that was not looking to good. Once I removed this running grass that has deep vives that was choking the Root System of my Plants, they started getting health again. I put black shade cloth around them to help Block Hot Heat from the hot sun, and they are very Happy Tomato Plants nows. I finally got a cool down and ""rain""" today and a break from farming, Amen!!.