Well, I sprayed the genetic dwarf peach trees with copper today. I suspect it is a futile effort, being too late, but I had the spray so used it. We'll see. This is a lesson for me. In my SouthWest Washington climate, I was told I couldn't grow peaches, but with a lot of effort they do grow. The problem is putting forth that effort. Given that I have 3 genetic dwarf varieties plus a seedling from one of those, and they all get terrible leaf curl, I suspect that all genetic dwarf peaches will all be susceptible. Using a cover does work - during the past 2 years, I tied the branches into bundles, and slipped garbage bags over the bundles. That prevents about 90% of the leaf curl, although not 100%. Haven't tried the carport idea yet. A peach tree is such an investment in time in the garden, taking years to produce, and garden space, so selecting the right variety is really important. When I have had a few crops of peaches from these, I liked them a lot. Honey Babe and Garden Gold. Haven't had any from my Ponderosa tree yet. I appreciate the comments. I was also thinking about Indian Free. This one is also listed as PLC resistant, and very tasty, but I don't know about the bloom time. Any experience with that one?

An alternative option is to take a method from fig growers, who bundle up their trees to protect them from cold. The difference is that you can bundle up peaches to protect them from rain. I live in W. Washington and peach leaf curl is rampant. It takes using small pruned, or genetic dwarf, peach trees like Ponderosa (Or is it Bonanza?) or Honey Babe or Garden Gold (My varieties). I bundle up the branches with twine, each major branch being one bundle. Then I cover each bundle with a white plastic trash bag "sheath" and tie that in place as well. Keeping the rain off the buds, prevents peach leaf curl spores from getting into the buds and growing. I've sprayed the bundles before covering with copper spray but not sure if it's necessary. The bundling needs to be done in November. Then in February, I remove the trash bags and unbundle. I watch for when buds begin to swell, then remove the bags. This technique changed my peach loss from almost 100% to an overabundance of peaches. Only a few leaves were infected wtih leaf curl. I also did this with a Tri-lite peachplum, which is not genetic dwarf but is small. It worked for that as well. I plan to keep it pruned small so that the bundling is reasonably easy.

Removing the infected leaves from the trees are TOTAL WASTE OF TIME. There are no significant difference if you remove them from the tree or not. I did not remove any infected leaves from the tree two winter seasons ago, and there was tremendous infection that year due to the constant rains. This year, out of several hundred thousand peach and nectarine leaves, I only spotted 5 of them that has the peach curl. And I did not spray! The simple reason is that it has been dry. But here's the thing that really helped out my tree when I had severe PLC infections last year. 1. Don't remove the leaves, TOTAL WASTE OF TIME, and it doesn't help the tree at all if you do it. Use your time to do other things instead like the ones that follow. 2. Come early summer when it is getting hot, and no more rains, apply loads of fertilizers, especially high in Nitrogen. And supplement with Epsom salts. Supply adequate irrigation. The idea here is to help your tree recover vigorously to replace the infected leaves which will fall off. The biggest mistake of homegrowers is not to fertilize their trees when they have PLC infections. The new vigorous leaves will not be infected in the drier months, and it will help your tree prepare much better for next year. 3. Let the infected leaves fall, but promptly remove all the leaves that fell down at most weekly, and cart them off into the streets for yard waste pick up by the city to be composted properly where those pathogens will surely die. 4. Around the fall season, always remove the fallen leaves before they decay. 5. Apply your first batch of PLC fungicide around thanksgiving. Spray also the fences and the soil and nearby trees where possible splashes from the rain could go into your trees. 6. Around Christmas day, be sure to remove all the leaves hanging on the trees if you still see some of them. remove also the mummified fruit trees. Then spray with the strongest fungicide that you have, like lime sulfur. 7. Around super bowl time after the holidays, when the buds are starting to swell, apply the last batch of PLC fungicide. 8. If you happen to have brown rot and twig blight, it might be good to spray diluted concentrations of copper on your blooms when it is rainy during the bloom time.

My nectarine has peach leaf curl baaaaad. It's close to completely leafed out, so obviously I can't use a dormant spray concoction. I read that a 1:10 bleach solution can be used on the leaves. Anyone have any experience with this?