Some sort of dormant spray, Sulpher or Copper. I don't think dormant oil would do a darn thing for a fungal disease.

Here's what UC Davis says about it...

Here is a link that might be useful: Leaf Curl treatments UC Davis

I dont think sulfer works very good. Borduex might. I found that fixed copper although considered organic,is more dangerous then designer chemicals like chlorathalonil. And doesnt work for much other then leaf curl.

I don't spray for peach leaf curl. I remove the leaves as they appear and send them to the recycle center. I guess that is organic in nature!

Penny

How does your tree survive if you remove the leaves?

You remove only the affected leaves.

The leaves would fall off anyway as new leaves replace them and that keeps them off the ground so the virus doesn't wait for next winter.

Penny

It was said: "The leaves would fall off anyway as new leaves replace them and that keeps them off the ground so the virus doesn't wait for next winter."

Here are the facts:
1. The disease is caused by a fungus.
2. The fungicide spray must be applied before the buds swell to protect the newly developing leaves from infection
3. Yes, most of the affected leaves fall. BUT those damaged leaves should be collected and trashed. If not, they will spew spores the following season, thereby increasing the infection from one year to the next.
4. Any affected leaves which don't drop should also be removed and discarded.

Home garden remedies are lime sulfur, or a copper spray. Both are considered organic. Coverage must be very thorough.

If your buds are already leafing out, resort to the search-and-destroy method for infected leaves for this year.

In addition, mark your calendar so that you can spray next winter at the appropriate time.

One of the local contractors recommends spraying with actively aerated compost tea. I don't have any fruit trees, but I've passed on the recommendation and have heard that it is effective. The compost tea is sprayed, and if there's any left over, it can also be used as a soil drench.

I would like to know more about spraying with compost tea for peach leaf curl. How to make it, when to spray, etc. Can you recommend a book or an article? Anyone have experience with this?
We just moved into a house in Chilliwack, BC that has a lovely huge peach on the south side of the house, right against the house, which we just noticed has leaf curl. I guess I can just pick the affected leaves (that I can get to) for now.
Thanks for any information!

I would like to know how you had leaf curl this year? We never had leaf curl till the last 2 years due to the late spring rains... no leaf curl this year! too dry. Do you live in a humid environment?

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.

OK joreal, can you advise on using the epsom salts for the peach tree? I only have one...what proportion of epsom to water (I assume you dilute it)?
I'm still interested in hearing about using compost tea, too, if anyone has any information about that.
Thanks!

Does pruning the tree after its fruiting season is over have any effect on peach leaf curl for next year? If so, when is the best time to prune, and how far back should it be pruned?

Has anyone had a chance to try using compost tea to control peach leaf curl?

Hi, our peach and nectarine trees had curly leaf and I was told by an organic farmer to use 6-7 ml of oregano oil mixed in a 16 0z bottle of water then spray the tree from trunk to the top as well as each branch. Do this a couple times this year and every year after. Well I used this and so far our trees seem to be doing better, plus it's completely organic with no side effects for us or our trees.

My new house has young fruit trees - and all the peach trees have come out with Leaf Curl. After reading up on this as much as I could, I agree with the posts that say remove the leaves. Leaf Curl is a fungus - you can google the life cycle. Spores grow on the affected leaves, the dust released by the spores then winters over on the tree (all over the tree) and on the ground around the tree. The fungus is activated in the spring by the right combination of excess water (rain or irrigation) and cool to warm temperatures. Irrigation splashes the fungus up onto the tree from the ground, rain washes it down from the top of the tree.

When the leaves come out red or with red blisters on them - remove them asap. By the time these leaves are going whitish the spores have developed. It's not as if you're stripping the tree bare - I've just removed leaves from five trees. Only one tree was badly affected and the leaves from that wouldn't have filled a supermarket plastic bag.

Sure, removing leaves probably won't do anything much this year, but it should lessen any outbreak next year. Once the leaves have developed it's too late for standard sprays (such as copper) which should be applied in autumn (though the oregano oil could well be different).

Re joereal's comment: "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." Rather proves the point - it was the weather that saved your trees. Me, I'm not counting on a dry spring next year - or any year - where I live.