Topic: Help! Mystery virus!

[Trevor_D]

On our site we have been hit by a mystery virus which attacks potatoes & tomatoes. The leaves curl inwards and the whole plant becomes stunted. It seems to have started at the top end of the site and is working its way downhill. It generally affects potatoes first, then tomatoes. Even broad beans and mangtout seem to have been affected. It looks like hormone weed-killer damage, but surely not on that scale?

Some folk have watered, fed and/or sprayed and the plants seem to have produced new, healthy growth.

We assume it's some form of air, water or insect-borne virus. But what is it and how do we treat it?

[growmore]

You say it is working its way down the slope .Sounds like something has been leached into the soil higher up and is draining down ..Is the roots of the  tomato in the greenhouse in contact with the soil or is it in a container?.

[Trevor_D]

No, the GH tomatoes are in 10" pots, so it's not soil-borne. (Unless I've handled infected plants and passed it on that way.) And at the top of the plot there's a main road; we don't have any industrial sites anywhere that may have leached anything into the soil, apart from a garage.

[ugly gourd]

I think its potato leaf roll virus it would affect tomatoes cause same familly I goggled it and thats what it looks like 

[jennym]

...Some folk have watered, fed and/or sprayed and the plants seem to have produced new, healthy growth.

If the plants are producing new healthy growth, then it's not a virus. Once a virus is in the plant, it can't be cured, there isn't any way to get rid of the virus. I don't think it's a virus.

Have you closely examined the plants, uncurling the leaves and looking for aphids?
The leaves look healthy enough apart from the curling, and puckering, so it looks like aphid damage to me on first glance. Herbicides can cause leaf rolling, but it's have to be a widespread drift to catch the plants that are inside greenhouses. Normally you'd see pleanty of yellowing, too.
Sometimes sites near railway lines suffer in this way because the rail companies often spray along the lines to keep weeds down.