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Old November 26, 2009   #1
bionicman
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Ontario
Posts: 5
Default Tomato plants curling downwards, wilting from the bottom up

I am having a very odd problem with my cherry tomato plants. I am growing using aeroponics (low pressure). The plants are wilting from the bottom branches upwards. As each branch wilts and dies the next one up does the same. The leaves are also curling downards and curling in on themselves. The bottom most leaves are tough and leathery and have purple and yellow color. The main stem is purple near the bottom. The person at the hydroponics shop said that he believes my nutrient tank is getting too cold. I checked the temperature and its 70F during the day. I know the air temperature under the 400W HPS lamp remains around 74F during the day, but goes to about 64F at night. Lowest nightime air temperature in the last 30 days was 61F. I am uncertain what the temperature of the water (nutrients) goes down to at night time. I am growing these in my basement and the nutrient tank is sitting on the cold concrete floor of my basement. I have tried two different fertilizers and have grown the same tomatoes in deep water culture without issue using the same fertilizer. I have tried adding hydrogen perioxide to the nutrient water but it did not help. The roots are white and look healthly although the number of roots seems to be stunted as I would expect more roots after 30 days of growing than I am seeing. I have tried regrowing the same tomato plants several times and each time I have cleaned my system out completely, yet I still end up with the same issue. The only thing I can think of us that the water is getting too cold at night. I have my aeroponic sprayers running 1 minute on and 5 minutes off, 24/7. My 400W HPS lamp runs 16 hours on, 8 hours off each day. Running about 700PPM right now, ph is around 6.3. I have tried higher and lower nutrient levels and higher and lower ph levels which did not appear to help.

If someone can help I would appreciate it. I will post pictures in a moment.

Last edited by bionicman; November 26, 2009 at 02:30 PM.
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