Help please, horrible things on my almond tree :-(

[Kahriss]

Hi everyone

I'm a lousy gardener and hadn't even noticed these things until today. I tried google and it called it peach curl but I couldn't find how to get rid of it. It's on loads of the leaves, do I need to dig the tree up? To be honest I didn't do any research and it's planted on a border with my neighbour, I had no idea how big they grew, it's about 14ft and still growing. If this disease can't be cured then I'm tempted to get rid of it, any advice would be much appreciated, thanks

Karen

[Jeanied]

It could be insect galls, which show up as red blistery parts on the leaf. Or peach leaf curl which is a fungal infection. Either way they are unsightly but not terminal for the tree. You may just have to live with it.

[Kirk]

It will depend on how organic you are or want to be.
I have a cherry tree as big or bigger and I will spray it with something if I think necessary.
Have a fair sized sprayer for this.

Have only used it for black fly attacks that can get very bad, since there has been nothing else I have needed to consider. However when every leaf cluster on a 15-20 foot tree is curled up with blackfly I have decided that something is necessary. My decision - as the leaves would have been producing less food for the tree and the black fly can introduce viruses and fungus.

As said if there is a treatment then the decision is yours.
You may want to leave this year and see if there is any repeat problem next - blackfly is easy as you either do something or don't.

[Kahriss]

Thanks both for the replies, I have to be careful what I spray as I have a pond with koi in as well. I really am a useless gardener but I like trying :-) I think I'm just going to have to cut the infected bits off and hope for the best, shame as I was really hoping for almonds this year

[Ninetrees]

Looks very much like peach leaf curl - mine is suffering too. There's no cure now it's established, not for this season. I've done a fair bit of reading up, and there's no clear evidence that removing the affected leaves helps directly- I take the view that a living leaf, even if malformed and not that long-lived - can only help with photosynthesis, so I've left them alone. But I will cover the tree next Autumn and Winter to try and cut down on the moisture exposure (and hence spore activation), and spray diligently with Bordeaux.

[Kahriss]

They look so horrible, I'd never seen anything like it. I've googled bordeaux spray and will do that, am I best to do it now or wait until autumn? I'm guessing I won't get any almonds this year now

[Scarlet]

I've done a fair bit of reading up, and there's no clear evidence that removing the affected leaves helps directly- I take the view that a living leaf, even if malformed and not that long-lived - can only help with photosynthesis.

I've read that prompt removal of infected leaves help reduce the amount of fungus that is carried over for the following year. It should grow more if taken off early in the season.

[Kahriss]

Thanks for all the replies, I cut the whole lot off, most of the leaves were infected so it's had a good chop. I'm going to get some spray at the weekend, fingers crossed next year it will be ok :-)