Princess Pea: Peach leaf curl is caused by a fungus (Taphrina deformans). The fungus overwinters on buds, bark ect. When the bud scales swell and crack in spring, the fungus attacks the meristem. The leaves will open up twisted/puckered and have pink or yellow lumps on them. Once you see this, you will never forget this disease. To prevent, you must spray with a fungicide BEFORE the leaf buds crack open. It is too late to spray afterwards and get control. I spray with chlorothalonil in late March and again a second spray the first week in April for SE WI. Your area is different than mine so all I can say is that you need to spray while the tree is dormant and be sure to cover the entire tree (trunk, branches ect). I cannot comment on "resistant" peach varieties as I have no experience with them.

Yes, you will have the same pests this year that you did last year. It could be plum curculio if it's early that the peaches are dropping. Plum curc is easy to recognize with a bigger scar, and the grub is legless whereas the OFM grub has legs. Triazicide will treat both. Hard to say about the reddish sap on the trunk/branches, but it doesn't sound good. Cankers ooze that kind of sap and can be the death of the tree. Dormant copper sprays are generally recommended for preventing it. Re: On the height of the tree, I'd prune it down to a manageable height. Last year I was fed up with how tall some of my trees were getting, so I pruned them with a chain saw (seriously). I don't have time or inclination to fool with ladders. People will think that I shouldn't have let the trees get to such a state, and they may be right. A commercial peach grower near me prunes his peaches that way when they get out-of-hand, and has good results with it. The trees I pruned this way had good growth rest of the summer and filled back in some. I did notice some winter bark kill on some of the larger limbs that were pruned, but it doesn't look like it's anything that won't heal. Large pruning wounds can open up a peach tree to Lesser peach tree borer, so it would be important to keep your trees sprayed.

I don't think the cooperative extension is necessarily going to be that helpful in providing info on lowest spray programs unless there's someone there with a special interest in fruit trees. I have a very good cooperative extension but they could never provide me with a helpful program although they are very good at ID'ing pests. Cornell doesn't do research on growing fruit in home orchards, where fruit doesn't have to be pristine and pest pressure tends to be less than in huge orchard monocultures. Both Cornell and Rutgers, the NJ source of extension info, provide unreliable info on fruit pest control for home growers. I can't speak for other states, but none of them has a mandate or enough funding to do research and distribute legitimate info for home growers beyond trying to stop them from poisoning themselves or the environment. They usually recommend pre-mix fruit sprays and often malathion with too large intervals between sprays. They tend to me unaware of newer, safer and more affective formulations such as Triazide and Rally. The best thing to do, IMO, is start with a 2 insecticide program if you are in about Z7 or colder and see what happens. Then you can find out what the sweet spot is and if trees are young, not risk much fruit in the process. Or better still, don't spray the first crop at all and identify pests as they appear, sacrificing a small amount of fruit for your education. That is, if you can't get info from a nearby grower who seems competent. If I lived near Scott, for instance, I would expect to have problems with Oriental fruit moth, which would greatly complicate a spray schedule beyond what I currently have to do. It's a pest that's becoming a greater liability in my area and may soon increase the number of necessary sprays here. I used to have a problem with OFM deforming nursery peach trees after my low spray was over (they attacked shoots but not fruits). For a while there was a company that sold a pheromone bait formula with a pyrethroid bait that is extremely affective for me. I still have some bait left but it's been taken off the market for some stupid reason.

Hi Marcantonio, Did you apply the neem oil when the sun was still shining? I have been using neem oil for the last 3 years on my peach, plum and fruit cocktail trees and it works for me. However, I will not give those little pests the opportunity of building up a resistance to the oil so I am incorporating other solutions in my insecticide regime along with the neem oil-like home remedies; a mixture of cayenne pepper, garlic clove, mineral oil and a little dish detergent. When using most insecticides, you want to do it early in the morning before the sun comes up. Because I work until the evening, I do it in the evening although I try to make sure that it doesn't get too cool as to cause other problems like fungus, mold and mildew. I am in the deep south-georgia-and we have a lot of hot and humid weather here so I am always taking care to make sure that I dont spray anything during peak sunshine which is a lot in this location. You mentioned using spectricide as well-could it be that instead of the neem oil? I also allow the daddy long-legs to hang out on my fruit trees as well. I don't dismiss them until harvest time and then I just gently take them out of the trees along with their webs. I don't harm them, I just relocate them to my rose garden. LOL. They consume quite a lot of the little insects trying to make holes in my fruit and flowers as well. I have been gardening for about 8 years steadily and its been a lot of trial and error and it always will be-that comes with the occupation. LOL. However, if something doesn't work for me, I eliminate the product (provided I have done everything according to directions) and I go on to something else. You are in New York and the weather is very different than it is here in georgia so conditions will not be the same. I have always just used just 1 capful of neem oil to a gallon of water and I spray lightly above and under the leaves-within 1 week I saw a difference-that was 3 years ago and it has been a faithful product in my collection of insecticides, pesticides and fungicides since. Marcantonio, keep looking for products to take care of your specific concerns and you will find one-just don't give up because there is nothing like home-grown fruit and produce. It will be worth the effort in the long run! Schucks, a sun-ripened peach is simply indescribable but I guess you know this, thats why you are seeking help. Good Luck.