I have no idea about the leaf curl not knowledgeable about it. As for the moth I can write a book. Last year the Moth kicked my A... although I tried all kinds of spray weekly. It turned out that for the spray to be effective against the moth it has to be timed. How it is very difficult. This year I am planning to spray surround on weekly basis and after every rain whether I have moth or not. If your tree is not a big giant tree and you can easily reach the fruit bagging is very effective.

For the single tree owner, I recommend the following:

PLC--after leaf fall, drench the tree with lime-sulfur spray; in the spring, mix in liquid copper with your dormant oil.

OFM--after blooms fall, spray every 10-14 days with malathion or Spectracide's Triazicide. You'll want to add a fungicide to this, as well.

These measures should give you a nice harvest. Misterbaby.

Mike, I don't see why you can spray one more time with a copper spray if you haven't had bud break. That should help you with the PLC. Be sure to drench the tree so it is dripping wet. The Oriental Fruit Moth I don't have any experience with, but I would definitely look on Rutgers Peach web site to get more info. See the link I've provided below. Rutgers is your land grant college for the state of NJ, and supports the coop extension and Master Gardener's programs. You can also contact your local county MG program for assistance with the Oriental Fruit Moth, and what spraying program works best in your area.

Patty S.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rutgers U-New Jersey Agricutural Experiment Station - Peach Science

Thanks to all!

I was able to download the Rutgers Peach and Nectarine Pest Control Schedule today. They also recommend Lime Sulfur at this stage or copper hydroxide or chlorothaloni. I cannot locate lime sulfur spray locally on online? Any advise?

Mike,

Since you're in zone 7, you missed it this year. Given favorable weather conditions, your peach tree will get hammered w/ PLC. Not a thing you can do about it at this point.

Next year try some KOCIDE 3000 or some fungicide w/ chlorothalonil in the DORMANT season. KOCIDE and various formulations of chlorothalonil are available on-line.

I would recommend you purchase one of these pesticides now so you have them ready for next year.

Since budbreak has not ocurred, do you think that PLC is inevitable?

If the buds haven't broken, i think you could get some copper on there. I spray mine in early spring before anything has awoken. copper copper copper.

Yup, echo franktank232. I would call your local high quality nursery to confer with them, but if you haven't had bud break, yet, you still have time, and in fact, this could be quite optimal for you.

Patty s.

Thanks again. I do have copper and will spray today.

Clorathalinil is available at big box stores if you read labels of fungicides and is the easiest way to stop peach leaf curl that I know of. Get to the store today and apply it (oh hell, it's raining) and it may still work, unless olpea knows something here I don't- which he may, I don't get that much PLC. Dormant application is recommended but I'm not sure if that means spraying when buds are only at swollen stage is futile. Usually there's a little more leeway than recs specify.

I strongly recommend against blindly following a spray schedule recommended by someone in a different region. Spectracide and Malathion are not at all equivalent and Malathion has a very short knockdown period. A 2-week interval would likely fail anywhere if pressure was present as I understand it.

Rutgers is your best source of info as far as scheduling goes and probably provides a lot of info on-line. They are very involved in peach production research and info.

Mike,

I'm amazed that bud break hasn't occurred yet in zone 7. I would have thought your trees would be farther along than my zone 6. We are into petal fall on some peaches. However, if you still aren't at bud break, I'd give copper or chlorothalonil a try.

As I recall the literature says fungicides for leaf curl need to be on before bud swell. Supposedly the fungus washes into the bud scales once they start to separate and affects the tissue systemically so that once leaf tissue emerges, it's already infected and cannot be cured.

All that said, I've never experimented to see just how late one can get away with applying a fungicide and still have reasonable control. I once sprayed a leafed-out peach tree that had a bad case of PLC just to see what would happen. I think the copper simply made the leaves fall of the tree that much faster.

The good news, as Hman points out is PLC may not be as bad in your locale.

olpea you provide some of the best payoff for me in participating in this forum. thanks

Malathion at 10-14 day intervals is a recommended treatment by Rutgers. Misterbaby.

Mr. Baby, can you show me that link. I've read very frequently that Malathion is not a very often recommended insecticide because of it's short staying power. I've only seen it recommended for aphids. I can't see how they'd expect it to protect for 14 days.

Never mind, I found it in Rutgers recs for home growers. You're right Mr. B.

I'm not sure if they really care that after 3 or 4 days it stops killing the pests (if my memory serves). They don't recommend its use in their commercial recs. The only over the counter chemical they do is Sevin.

I tried to find information on the relative staying power of malathion compared to other insecticides and couldn't think of the right wording to bring it up. Can anybody help me here? I know Don has said in the past that he's not found Malathion very helpful but he may have been talking about PC. That has been the pest where others have consistently said its staying power is inadequate.

It doesn't matter who's right but I would like a definite what's right.

Hman is correct. Malathion is weak and breaks down fast, hence it's short PHI. I think Rutgers lists it in its homeowner recs because it's one of the handful of insecticides available to homeowners treating stone fruits.

In my view this has been a legit. gripe for non-commercial growers. That is, they have such few tools available to try to grown their own fruit. Sometimes some pretty poor choices. It's a rip.

According to the link from Cornell below, Malathion has a half life of 1.5 days in full sunlight.

This matches my experience. I once bought a bottle of it and found it worthless. As I recall the bottle is something like 50% a.i. I've no reason to spray it and haven't touched the bottle for several years.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cornell Malathion - environmental fate

Thanks OP. I have found malathion useful for aphids as you just need to knock down what's in the trees. Of course, knocking down aphids with poison is a debatable course of action as ladybugs and others will usually take care of them if you're patient.

Here's a source for the Lime-Sulfur spray-

http://www.starkbros.com/products/tools-and-gear/tools-and-supplies/hi-yield-lime-sulfur-spray

Cindy

Here is a link that might be useful: Stark Bros.

The local Rutgers extension representative recommended that I use an all-purpose fruit tree spra PLUS Acetamiprid, or Imidacloprid, or Gamma Cyhalothrin, or Permethrin Or Preythrins or Pryethrins+PBO or Sponosad or Esfenvalerate or Malathion or Sevin. WOW. Of these chemicals, I assume the Malathion or Sevin will be the most easily obtained.

Just stick with triazide in Ortho's Once and Done. Lots of forum participants endorse it. It's a pyrethroid (synthetic pyrethrin) and has much more staying power than anything else over the counter. Forget the fruit tree spray mix, more proof of the irresponsibility or incompetence of the cooperative extension when it comes to fruit production.

I did pick up the triazide one and done last week. When is first spray and how often? Can I also use it on my apple tree?

First spray is at petal fall. Here I need 2nd spray 10 to 14 days later and that's often the only insecticide I often need but you'll almost certainly need more as you're further south and pressure is higher.

Oriental fruit moth can extend insecticide spray season into summer.

I got PLC last year maybe because of missing the timing of the first spray. I kept spraying with a fungicide for it with the theory that the trees will have a second leaf.

If I can protect the second leaf from PLC then I can get rid of it. I don't know if this theory is correct but it worked, the infected leafs fell off the tree and the new leaf never got PLC I believe because of spraying I caught it at the right timing and the second leaf were fine.
md

mjmarco,

If by "second leaf" you mean the second flush of growth after the tree defoliates due to the leaf curl, then it's probably not the spray that's protecting your second leaf.

Peach leaf curl generally only affects the first flush of leaves anyway. I don't exactly know why that is, but it's probably got something to do with the weather is not quite as cold and damp when the tree pushes a second flush of growth.