Peach Leaf Curl disease

[Artisan]

Some advice please. What months are Apricot, Peach and Nectarine trees most susceptible to the Peach Leaf Curl disease?

[Nicos]

I've had it as early as the first leaves on my outdoor peach tree.
Depends on the weather...

[Artisan]

I have an Apricot tree planted this year in a container. I'm hoping to get a bare rooted Peach and Nectarine in November and also plant them in containers. My aim is to put all three trees in a pop-up plastic greenhouse to protect them from the winter rains. Would you consider that a good idea?

[It never rains..it pours]

https://www.rhs.org.uk/Advice/profile?PID=232

Commercial growers use fungicide at late bud formation, pre bud break so around march/april depending on weather

[Guest]

I find it is at its worst when the leaves start to immerge in spring. I did a weekly spray this year of oregano and garlic oil in water and it was really good. I forget the grape that mentioned that tip but it is in a couple of old threads.

[nickdub]

I have an Apricot tree planted this year in a container. I'm hoping to get a bare rooted Peach and Nectarine in November and also plant them in containers. My aim is to put all three trees in a pop-up plastic greenhouse to protect them from the winter rains. Would you consider that a good idea?

Should work fine - best to try to keep the trees dry from late December through to say May.
Just a couple observations, though the trees will grow in containers they will do better and grow larger in the ground - eg in some ways its better to plant them out if possible, and then provide some sort of temporary structure with a roof to keep them dry. Secondly be careful of over heating in any sort of greenhouse. Peaches etc are from places with very cold winters, so frost is a good thing for the trees - if they get too hot too early, they will start in to leaf too soon etc. So what you want is a roof to keep the rain off, but open sides so there is no chance of over-heating.

BTW ripening can also be an issue, especially in our cold summers, so when you get fruit, protecting it from pests and helping it stay warmish can be a problem - another reason why Victorian gardeners had these sort of trees planted against south facing walls.

[Artisan]

Thank you for the valuable information. What I should have said is the Apricot tree I have is a dwarf variety as will be the two bare rooted trees I hope to buy. The reason that they are in containers is because unfortunately I have no further room to plant directly in the ground. Thanks again.

[Guest]

My dwarfs are in pots and are moved in the gh in winter/spring. This year one lot ended up with leaf curl fairly badly hence the oil.

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ml#post1548775

[nickdub]

No worries - one good thing about containers is if you move or get a new bit of ground somewhere, you have them ready to go straight in :-)

[Artisan]

Peach Leaf Curl

That’s a good point. Now all I have to do is find a bit of land!!! Having said that, our village always has allotments available. I have been tempted to take one as they are only £10 per year. The problem is they are right on the edge of the A377 which is a main trunk road between Exeter and Barnstaple in north Devon. There is no off road parking so you either park on the main road with your hazards flashing, park in the lane leading to the sewer farm ( not pleasant) and walk back to the allotment entrance or park in the village hall car park and walk (about a ¼ mile). Once you have achieved the dangerous and the impossible and arrived at the allotments you find that they are on the side of a hill (not good for balance when you get to my age) and to cap it all there is no water supplied. Now do you see why they are only £10 per year!!!

[nickdub]

Sounds like a good case for a tricycle with one back wheel larger then the other to cope with the slope - mind you you'd have to pedal backwards to get home, which could prove tricky :-)

[BUFFS]

I have mine in a north facing greenhouse so they wont get burnt (this is Scotland I am talking about) and I have two twenty four inch vents permanently wide open and a couple of closable 6x6ins extra vents that get left alone too. Cold will not damage your dwarf trees but our constant rainfall would be the death of them, so, as they are too heavy for me now my apricot/peach and nectarine are never moved outside, but we had a great crop again this year..

[starloc]

Since changing to oregano sprays and pre leaf fall autumn and then winter / spring dormant spraying and then summer spraying every month i get no leaf curl on my peach trees at all this year , i have one infected tree in the middle of them that i did not spray at all as control

Apricot i have never had a problem with leaf curl in the UK of Bulgaria and have only sprayed neem on to kill scale and one winter spray of oregano this year

[Artisan]

Thank you. very interesting information.

[Jose-Albacete]

My God, I'm reading this post and I can not believe what I read.
I do not pretend to be the smartest in the world (I'm new to the forum), but the remedy against the leaf curl of the peach is quite simple.

Let's start by defining the disease:
The disease is caused by the fungus Taphina Deformans, which feels special predilection for certain varieties of the genus Prunus (especially peaches, and nectarines in all its variants).
Once the tree has been infected with the spores, a cycle will be started that will be repeated every year in its adequate conditions of temperature and humidity.
So there is only one remedy, which is to remove the fungus from the trees to interrupt the fungus life cycle.
It is extremely simple and ecological

I explain the procedure:

It is a winter treatment to prevent the disease, and consists of the joint application of three products

- Paraffin oil at 83%
- Copper oxychloride 50%
- A economical and effective insecticide (eg Dimethoate 40%), this product is optional, but if you use it in the preventive treatments that I will mention, you will not have an aphid pest

It is necessary to apply three treatments (at least the first year), in following years with two treatments will be sufficient (even with a single treatment)

Treatments begin at the end of winter.
Once the frost has been finished, the first treatment is applied, 15 days after is applied the second treatment , and the third treatment (the most important) is applied when the fruit buds are In pink button state

It is the method used by all professionals of the stone fruit to prevent this disease and is totally effective.

The use of fungicides in vegetative state, only serves to eradicate the disease, but the crop will be lost that year.

For the treatment in the vegetative state (if you have done the winter treatment, you will not have problems and you do not need to know this), the most effective method, is the joint use of two fungicides, you can use these two options (the first option is better than the second )

- Difenoconazole 25% + Dodine 40%
- Difenoconazole 25% + Captan 80%

If you listen to me you will have no problem with the peach leaf curl

a greeting
Jose