GrowingHQ
Leaves

New growth twisted, puckered or distorted

The youngest leaves and shoot tips emerge crumpled, cupped, twisted or unevenly expanded, while older growth lower down is normal. Because the damage is confined to tissue that was still expanding, the cause was acting recently — which narrows the field considerably before anything else is observed.

When this is urgent

Distortion is severe, affects every new shoot, and no pest can be found on any of them. Where a plant has been growing normally and every growing point suddenly distorts at once, herbicide drift and virus are both possible, and neither is something to treat by guesswork — stop feeding and spraying entirely and seek an identification before acting.

What crumpled the new leaf: four causes comparedFour panels showing what different causes leave on a leaf that was still expanding. Aphids: a dense cluster of small soft-bodied insects sitting in the fold of the crumpled tip, with sticky honeydew shining on the leaves below them. Capsid bug: scattered ragged holes with brown rims, torn open as the leaf expanded around dead patches, and no insect present because capsids drop off when disturbed. Thrips: a silvery pewter sheen along the leaf with scattered tiny black specks of frass on it, and twisting rather than crumpling. Cold damage: one band of small puckered cupped leaves with normal leaves both below and above it, nothing living on the plant, and the damage stopping once the weather turned. The panels are cues to look for rather than a diagnosis.Aphidssomething is in the foldhoneydew belowcolony still presentleaves below are stickyworse at the tipCapsid bugdamage, no insecttorn holes, brown rimsnothing on the plantholes have ragged edgesleaf crumpled as wellThripssilvered and twistedpewter sheen + black specksspecks sit on the silveringnot stickylook inside the leaf baseCold damageone band, then normalnormal above and belownothing living on ita cold night a fortnight agodamage has stopped spreadinghealthy tissueliving pest presentdamage, cause gonesap or honeydewA leaf whose cells were killed while folded stays crumpled for life — the damage cannot grow out.
Cues, not verdicts. Any of these can be present without being the cause, and two can be present at once — work the differential rather than matching a picture.

What causes it, and how to tell them apart

Work down the list making the observation under each heading. GrowingHQ will not guess which one you have — the observation is the answer.

  1. Aphidsvery common
    source

    Sourced guidancehigh confidence

    • Royal Horticultural Society: Aphids

    Checked 2026-08-13

    How to tell

    Colonies visible on the shoot tips and undersides of the youngest leaves, usually with sticky honeydew on the growth below them.

    source

    Horticultural consensusmoderate confidence

    No external citation — see the evidence type above.

    Checked 2026-08-13

    If it is this, do first

    Wash the colonies off the growing tips with a jet of water and check again after a few days.

    source

    Sourced guidancehigh confidence

    • Royal Horticultural Society: Aphids — control

    Checked 2026-08-13

Where GrowingHQ holds more for one plant

This page lists the causes across every plant. The plants below are the ones where something about that plant changes the answer — different candidates, or a different observation that separates them.

Vegetables

Fruit

Ornamentals

Commonly reported on