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Fruit & Orchards

peach leaf curl on my tree leaves are only a inch big?

13 years ago

My tree is just in the bloom stage and the leaves are only a inch to 2 inches long and the whole tree has peach leaf curl.I sprayed twice the latest being a week ago with Immunox and Fungonil. My question is do you think the tree is infected with this and needs to be removed. between the moths and PLC I never had any peaches from this tree, it is 10 years old. Any thoughts would help...thanks.

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Comments (5)

olpea
13 years ago
Unless you want to get a PLC resistant tree, your current tree doesn't need to be removed. PLC isn't a systemic disease that affects the tree for life. The fungus floats around in the environment

Immunox isn't rated for PLC and will have no effect on it. However Fungonil should have done the trick for you. It sounds like you may have gotten the Fungonil spray on too late. The tree needs to be fully dormant when you apply the Fungonil.

I hate that you lost yet another crop, but next year spray the tree with Fungonil in the fall after it goes dormant, and then sometime in VERY early spring, before the buds swell. Fungonil needs to be on the trees before they wake up.
jellyman
13 years ago
Mjmarco:

I support the Olpea view on the PLC issue. PLC is an airborne, cool weather fungus, and the preventive fungicide must be on the tree before it arrives, since once underway it cannot be cured but only allowed to run its course.

I would dormant spray with a product very high in fixed copper, such as Kocide; once in late fall and again just before bud break. An additional spray after bud break with the fungonil product you are using is not a bad idea either.

You must live in a area that is cool and damp in spring, with a slow warmup. Those weather conditions favor PLC. Ask the folks in Seattle, or Long Island.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA
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trillianh: Spraying now won't help. The trees need spraying before bud swell in spring, as you've been told. Some recommend collecting the leaves, only after they fall, to limit spores next spring. The fruit is still OK to eat. But if the tree losses too many leaves it probably won't taste very good. The disease doesn't infect the fruit, only the leaves, and infection only occurs before leaf emergence.
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Alison: It's just as well you missed your spraying with Bonide dormant oil, since that would be of no value in controlling peach leaf curl. The best recipe for curl is a strong dormant copper spray, best applied once in late fall and again just before bud break on the trees. There are several liquid copper sprays out there, including one by Bonide, that are quite low in fixed copper equivalent and are only marginally effective. Then there is the "soap spray" containing some copper, sold by the likes of Gardens Alive! This product is useless. The best copper product that I know of is Kocide, which I use as do many others on this forum. Kocide may be difficult to find in small quantities, but keep looking around the net until you find it if you are serious about controlling the curl on your peaches. As for the peaches that fall off at golf ball size, they may have an insect problem such as oriental fruit moth, which leaves a little drip of pectin on the surface of the developing fruits. Peaches visited by OFM usually fall off well before achieving full size. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA
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Laurie: Agree with Olpea that your peach tree is suffering from bacterial canker. No need for me to take an entire page to explain what it is; Google it yourself and read all about it. Bacterial canker is common on peach trees, and has nothing to do with borers. I dormant spray peaches with copper each season to try to prevent this disease from getting a foothold on my stone fruit trees. A tree with canker at that point on the trunk is a goner, since you can't really prune it off without destroying the tree. I can't get to your photos of the leaves, but if they are dead then so is the tree, regardless of your experience with some other tree that you do not specify. A spring freeze may temporarily cause damage to emerging leaves, but on a healthy tree they quickly recover. So that's not it either. Peach leaf curl is common in climates that have consistently cool, moist spring weather and a slow warmup, but curl must be a relatively rare occurrence in Colorado. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA
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mjmarco
Original Author
13 years ago
Don or Olpea,

would you suggest to keep spraying with Fungonil or I'm I just wasting the product and my time. I thought I read that the tree will have a second leaf or because I missed the right timing that won't matter either ? Thanks again for your help.
jellyman
13 years ago
Mjmarco:

I don't know whether or not it's worthwhile to continue with the Fungonil or not. That's your call. If the tree is healthy, and not weakened by repeated bouts of curl, it is very likely to have a second leaf, especially given the early onset of the disease. If your weather conditions continue to favor curl, application of fungicides would seem to make sense to protect the new leaves. Unfortunately, you can't use copper at this point as it destroys leaves.

Missing the timing matters. You are unlikely to see peaches this season, but if you do I would take them off to help the tree recover.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA
mjmarco
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks Jellyman...This fungus is hard to understand when you can't see it... like all funguses I guess. I think I'll give it a shot and spray...I live behind the Erie Canal and the tree is 20 feet from it so moisture is always around the tree. I have a 3 year old peach tree that is resistant to PLC and that tree has it also. What can I lose by spraying at this point...just buy my peaches from my farmer again this year...

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