Topic: leaf curl on peach tree

[tricia]

I sprayed with Dithane last Autumn and again during the winter, but in spite of this I had to spend half an hour removing infected new leaves today. Is there anything else I can do at this time of year? The flowers are fading now and leaf growth is strong. I remember repeatedly removing infected leaves last year, but will be in hospital in May and on crutches for weeks afterwards so will not be able to attend to much in the garden this year.

I did lots of flower tickling with a fine paint brush a couple of weeks ago so am hoping to get more fruit this year - of eight formed fruit only one survived to ripen last year!

Tricia

[saddad]

The best advice is too keep the rain off it over Winter... as the culr spores are carried then...  :-X

[tricia]

The tree is a bit too big for me to cover in winter, though next winter I may ask a neighbour to help me rig up something to keep the rain off.

Tricia

[manicscousers]

ours is in the fruit cage and Ray has put a piece of plastic over it, it's worked this year  :)

[saddad]

The tree is a bit too big for me to cover in winter, though next winter I may ask a neighbour to help me rig up something to keep the rain off.

Tricia

Can you not reduce it a bit to make it easier to cover? The flowers/peaches are formed on the new wood I think...  :-\

[tricia]

The flowers/peaches are formed on the new wood I think...

Not sure about that Saddad! My tree had flowers all over it - including the main trunk. I'm now waiting to see how many fruit have formed which I won't be able to see until all the flowers have dropped away.

The tree is about six and a half feet tall and four feet wide growing in front of a 5 foot tall wooden fence. It might be possible to erect a kind of leanto from the fence covered with plastic for the winter. The real problem being to remove it and store it during the summer months. My small walled garden just doesn't have storage space!

Tricia

 

[Vinlander]

A 6' x 4' fan is a small one! 

Get yourself an old roller blind and replace the cotton blind with a polythene one - no storage problems! But make sure you keep summer sun off the roll or it will shred.

Cover doesn't have to be 100% to work because covers are 100% efficient.

A cover that is 3' 6" wide will give 100% protection to at least the central 3' where all the peaches are, and may protect the full 4 foot width...

You can start the cover 2 or 3' above the ground and it will still protect everything more than a foot off the ground (unless you live on open moorland and have horizontal drizzle as a norm).

Using chemicals against leafcurl is a mug's game.

You can even use opaque covers because 80% of the damage happens while the leaves are bursting, before they are really helping the crop. You can use anything - corrugated iron, old garage doors etc.

If you take an opaque cover off and expose the whole tree as soon as the first full-size leaves develop you will probably find you still get an 80% reduction in leafcurl.

Cheers.