Curly top

This article is about the plant disease. For the Shirley Temple movie, see Curly Top (film).

Curly top is a disease, first noted in the United States in 1898, which strikes various types of plants, including tomato, chili pepper, eggplant, potatoes, and others, causing them to stop growing or producing fruit, often eventually dying. Typically, the leaves curl up, giving it the name.

This disease may not immediately kill the plant, but will interrupt its life-cycle, causing poor or no flowering or fruiting.

It is carried almost exclusively by the beet leafhopper or the hoverfly, which can be managed through chemical means, or by use of companion plants; it is repelled by marigolds, while Pelargonium geraniums and petunias function almost identically as trap crops.