Nope, March is way too late for us to spray for PLC. Fruitnut is closer to the mark. We refer to it as the "holiday" spraying for PLC: Thanksgiving (you'll still have leaves on your trees no doubt), Christmas and Valentine's Day. But this year, it was too late to do a February 14th spray since we had a bit of a warm up and generally mild winter, so I only got two sprayings in this year. But, we've had a much, much drier winter this year than the last 3 years, so I think we'll be okay. I just had one of our local orchard specialists over today, and he was in the same boat as me. So, don't feel so badly :-) Patty S.

Depends upon how much you removed when you pruned. Peaches bear fruit on wood that grew last year.

Do you mean that you sprayed it with Malathion? I don't know why people are not using this stuff more often. Because it's dangerous. Malathion is a cholinesterease inhibitor. That means it is a neurotoxin (in high concentrations it can cause blurred vision, excess salivation, muscle spasms, and possibly death). It does have a low level of toxicity to birds and mamals when used according to instructions and human deaths are rare but it does have several points of concern. The EPA in the US is considering a change to the registration status because some recent studies are showing it to be a possible low level carcinogen. Malathion, if it enters a waterway or other water source, can react during the chlorination process to form Malaoxon - a chemical dozens of times more toxic than Malathion. Malathion can also break down into this chemical over time through exposure to air. It is highly toxic to honeybees. The honeybee populations in North America are declining very rapidly in part because of overuse of pesticides. We desperately need honeybees - your fruit tree, the grains used to make your bread and feed the cows that you eat require honeybees for pollination. Beans, corn, berries... basically almost everything you eat depends on honeybees. The city of Winnipeg, under orders from the province of Manitoba, is the only city in Canada to have a malathion spray program to combat mosquitoes. It is highly controversial and numerous court challenges have been filed to get them to cease spraying. Cosmetic Malathion use has been banned in the entire province of Quebec as well as many other municipalities across Canada. About your tree - Be careful with adding soil or compost over the roots or against the trunk. By covering the roots you risk depriving the tree of the oxygen it needs to grow, and by placing it against the trunk, you risk fungal infections, insects and rodents damaging the trunk. Ants will not usually harm your tree. They're probably looking for aphids to farm. Some ants will eat leaves or decaying wood, but unless your tree is dying that won't be a problem. How did you plant this tree? Did you dig a big hole and amend the soil you removed with fresh soil and compost or did you backfill with only the soil you removed? The proper way to plant a new tree is to backfill with only the soil you have removed. Many nurseries tell you to amend it first, but that is not a healthy practice. By doing this you encourage the roots to remain in the amended soil instead of spreading out properly. You can add a small amount of soil or mulch to the surface, but no more than an inch or so (or you run into the problem of suffocating the tree roots). Curling leaves over the whole tree would most likely be a sign of a fungal infestation or inadequate water uptake. It was almost certainly a coincidence that the tree improved at the same time you sprayed it. Malathion is a pesticide and does nothing against fungal infections. Most likely it needed to grow some new roots to get more moisture or it was fighting a fungus of some sort. Before you spray, it is much better to identify the problem. That way you can avid any unnecessary applications of possibly dangerous chemicals. The university of Calgary's agricultural department should be able to tell you where to go to get information on identifying local pests and other problems. BP

I am having the exact same problem! I am also confident thar the conditions are good so I am stumped as well. I wish us both good luck and will forward anything i may find as well. Drew