Distorted growing tips on tomato plants in Levingtons Original Growbag

Tortoise19

I have planted a variety of tomato plants - Shirley, Gardeners Delight, a beefsteak and a cherry tomato into two grow-bags following the planting instruction - 3 plants per bag. I have also planted one cucumber plant in with two tomato plants in one bag. All went well but as fruit started to form the upper leaves and shoots on all the tomatoes have become very twisted - like corkscrews - and distorted. The fruit forming at the top of the plants is very small, pointed and berry like. I am watering regularly, feeding weekly and pinching out side shoots. The plants are in a cold green house, I leave a roof window open for ventilation and on hot days the door is left open too. I hang yellow sticky cards to control pests and can see little evidence of anything. The cucumber is not affected. I also have two tomato plants in large pots with different compost - no distortion. What is going wrong? Will the plants survive and can I eat the crop? The growbags are Levington Original Grow Bags bought fresh this year from a nursery with a good turn over.

fidgetbones

Can you post a photo please?

SJF

SJF

Anyone else experiencing problems with growbags? I have done a bit of reading around and there seems to be some issues with the waste material used to make them having traces of hormone weed killers. Noticed that some French beans that I planted in troughs using same growbag - had one left over - are beginning to show a wrinkling of leaves. Main concern is can I eat the crops?

Eustace

I have issues with tomato plants having shrivelled/curly growth ever since I repotted them in H0mebase's peatfree compost. You can see that the previous growth is good, whereas the new leaves are all shrivelled.

Tortoise19

Here is the top of one stem.

Tortoise19

Yes my plants are exactly the same at the top. The grow bags had less peat in than before. Maybe it is peat free element? 

Eustace

I think the compost is contaminated with weedkiller.

Tortoise19

That is what I am thinking too- much of the peat free is waste material compost made by composting council waste etc. I think weed killer must be on some of the material and the composting process isn’t getting rid of it. I wonder how wide spread the problem is. I have to use bags of compost as I simply don’t have enough space to produce the amount of compost I use - 3 bags for vegetables and about the same for flowers.
We could do with GW doing an investigation 

REMF33

I am wondering how common this is - I suspect rather, alas. I had some Wickes PF compost which I suspected was contaminated. It's a huge concern when we are being encouraged to use PF. (My local garden centre only sells PF.) I really want to buy PF but my trust has been rather lost. I have since bought some Sylvagrow, which has a good reputation, and which was fine (but it's very expensive when you grow as many vegetable plants in pots as I do). And I am still wary.
There is an email address at the end of this article to write to if you think you have had contaminated compost: https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/news/worrying-damage-plants-herbicide-contamination-compost-organic-organisations-take-action

Tortoise19

I will write to it and there is also an article on the RHS website. I am struggling to find contact information for Levingtons. Any help in this matter?