About this time of year, lots of people venture out to their gardens to find tomato plants that look something like this:

They find their tomatoes with leaves all curled up, like this tomato in the Demo Garden. It looks like a terrible, tomato-threatening disease, doesn’t it? Not to worry! This is merely a common sydrome of tomato called Physiological Leaf Curl/Roll. It routinely happens when there is a drastic change in the weather – usually from cool and moist to hot and dry. The plants have been growing quickly on top, but the roots have not kept pace. When the weather turns hot, the plant realizes its mistake and curls the leaves so that it won’t lose too much water while the roots catch up in growth. These tomatoes should straighten out again in a week or so!