Leaf curl prevention, miniature peaches and Tri-Lite

15 years ago

Hi Fruit experts, I have 2 questions. I think it's time to think about preventing leaf curl. It nearly wiped out my miniature peach trees this year. I got one peach from Garden Gold, and none from Honey Babe. El-Dorado gave me 3 peaches, but I had just planted it this year and it is only 2 feet tall. This tiny tree did not have leaf curl, but since it was a bare root that I planted in February, I assume it was stored in a shed and did not have rain exposure during the winter.

{{gwi:124798}}

This Honey-Babe almost died. It recovered completely, but no peaches!

I think that some sources recommend covering the trees for the winter. Since these are miniature trees, I can probably do that.

Does covering the trees with a plastic tarp prevent curl?

Will covering with a tarp kill the trees?

If I do that, should I wait for leaves to fall first? That might be december here.

If covering won't prevent curl, is there an organic regimen that will work? I can definitely say that neem failed miserably for leaf curl.

I assume that any spray regimen would need to wait for the leaves to fall?

Tri-Lite is a peach-plum hybrid. Will the plum genes give resistance to curl? I planted this one this year, so it may not get any peaches, but I'd prefer that it not be killed with leaf curl next spring.

Thanks a lot for your advice! These are delicious peaches, but that curl is a problem!

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Comments (5)

alcan_nw
15 years ago
I live near you, I don't have problems with leaf curl when covering the tree. You don't need to spray as long as you devise a method to keep the twigs dried out for a minimum of 70 days starting from Christmas. I used an artificial umbrella with clear plastic but I became disappointed with winter winds knocking things apart. So I found another method of using clear nylon fingers inserted on each twig individually and so I hope it will work.

If your located not too far away maybe you would like to come by to get 50 or so to try for your mini peach. They should get you enough coverage but the leaves will have to fall first otherwise they won't fit.
fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
15 years ago
Wow, that's amazing. Covering the tree will control leaf curl. I know from my greenhouse that the humidity under that cover will be 100% for long periods. There will be dampness under there. Still no curl, great!

If I moved back to California, I think I'd build a shelter over my trees. This would be a greenhouse frame covered with poly. I'd have the poly on from Oct to April. This would keep the trees dry during the entire rainy season. I think that would take care of not only leaf curl but brown rot and most other diseases. In the summer the poly would come off. But I could arrange it to warm the trees spring and fall if that seemed like a good idea for earlier or extended harvest. Crimson grapes hang on the vine in great shape until New Years in my greenhouse.

I think growers in the Eastern US are missing an opportunity here as well.

Thanks for the confirmation of an idea floating in my head.

The Fruitnut
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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.
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athenainwi
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I've used Lime-Sulfur spray for control of leaf curl. You need to spray once after the leaves fall off and again in the spring before the buds start to swell. You can also use copper but be sure you find a dormant spray strength. A couple of people on here recommend Kocide. You can get away with only spraying once but since your tree had it that badly then I'd be sure to spray twice. I'd go ahead and spray everything. The spray won't hurt anything.

I didn't know that covering the tree would prevent leaf curl. I think that would be more work than spraying though.
eukofios
Original Author
14 years ago
Well, here's what happened to the pictured tree. And others. I cut off all of the dead branches in May. That did not seem to leave much. I fertilized with Alaska fish emulsio for the high nitrogen. The trees made a come back, although the most infected tree did not return to its former glory.

In November, I pulled off all of the leaves by hand, because I read that I should be dormant spraying the tree then and they still had leaves. It's not as difficult as it sounds, these are genetic dwarf trees and are under 5 feet tall.

Then I sprayed with Kocide. Once it dried, I tied each branch into a bundle, and covered each bundle in a white plastic garbage bag, then tied it into place.

In March, I uncovered the trees. By then I read that Kocide isn't very helpful, so I sprayed with some lime sulfur.

Here is how one tree that was severely infected last year, looks now. They bloomed like crazy. I thinned out about 2/3 of them today. The most infected tree that I thought would die, has a couple of dozen peaches and lush growth. I've picked off about 10 mildly infected leaves from the 2 trees, combined. Not bad considering that all leaves were devastated last year.

The tri-lite peach-plum was subjected to the same treatment. No curl at all. It is only in its 2nd season, so I don't expect much. It has 4 peaches.

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vincentkim8b
8 years ago
How is your Tri lite peach doing now? Eulcofios. I like to plant it next year.

Leaf curl prevention, miniature peaches and Tri-Lite

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alcan_nw

fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX

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Leaf curl prevention, miniature peaches and Tri-Lite

Comments (5)

alcan_nw

fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX

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