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?

Light oil sprays at a concentrate of no more than 2% ten to fourteen days after full bloom. Actually we have a service that monitors flight with Degree Growing Days and tells when to spray, but those days I think would put you close. You can put out traps. We did use Sunspray, but I think we switched two years ago to a generic. I can't think now what it is, but Sunspray would be fine. Then put it on again after 10 days. It works best against against scales and aphids and other things. An organic orchard can just get buggy. Eventually the predators will move in, but until they do you can have small problems. The oil sets back the bad bugs without killing the good bugs. An organic orchard is neat, because you will see Praying Mantis and others. Won't see those in a nonorganic block. But sometimes you can have an outbreak of things like aphids and it takes awhile for the predators to catch up. That is where the oil comes in. An interesting thing about summer oil is the Phds don't think it does a great deal against CM, but the old timers think it helps enough against CM to warrant putting it on. I am beginning to wonder if we won't eliminate the oil and go with Entrust, GV and lures. I think we will. I think others already have. Entrust has to go on about every seven days. It is expensive and for your purposes you would be better off with Delegate. My buffer has been Guthion, but that is going the way of the dodo bird. You really need to check out Delegate. I have no knowledge of attract and kill as these have never been approved for certified organic. My knowledge is from a year ago so things might have changed.

On my cherries I got rid of these leaf-curling aphids by spraying soap, hand opening each leaf to get at all the bugs. It was a lot of work and then you have to keep spraying oil or soap for the next month or so to get the stragglers. I didn't find dormant oil to completely work on them, at least in my climate - last summer was the second or third summer I got them. So this year I am applying prophylactic oil - I am going to spray oil every couple of weeks whether I see any of these critters or not. I am doing the same thing on my persimmon psylla, a similar kind of bug I have not been able to get rid of. So far so good - the only curling leaves I have found were a couple apple leaves, which I promptly pulled off. LL, indeed curl has those pink/orange/red colors on peaches. Scott

I am dealing with this problem on a newish peach as well. I have been searching the internet (which is how I found this thread). I read on one of the university sites that some of the resistant cultivars need to be sprayed for the first couple of years until they are established, at which time they can fight off infection. So really infection at this stage doesn't necessarily mean your tree is doomed. Depending on the variety, it may be able to fight once it gets comfortable in its new setting. It also may be affected every year. I see Jean's point, but I think she was a bit heavy-handed about it. For myself, I am hoping to find something less toxic than copper and Bordeaux mixture that will help my tree along until it can cope better. Good luck to you! Ellie