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we've just bought some fruit trees from Victoriana nursery, a peach, a cherry and a plum,
we've put them in today and when I was reading the instructions it said to spray the peach in feb/march with bordeaux mixture to protect from peach leaf curl,
we're trying to be as natural as we can, is it ok to cover the plant to protect the leaves instead ?
it says there's no need if it's grown inside a greenhouse or poly   :)

Whatever - you've got to prevent it!!

http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles1200/peach_leaf_curl.asp

thanks, Tim, looks like we can part-cover the tree and it'll protect it  :)

Got a new peach from wilkos last year (well, got two but one died) and have put in in a large pot for that very reason - peach tree leaf curl. I can move the pot under cover in the winter, and hopefully that'll help prevent it. I had a peach out in the open for a good few years but it suffered dreadfully, even though Bordeaux mixture was used religiously. It knocks them back if they're young when they suffer badly, you can pull off affected leaves and new ones do grow, but the old tree never did well.

I use bordeaux just a couple of times during the early summer on my toms to shield them from blight - it isn't a cure, only a protective layer.  Nobody can grow toms on our site because of blight - I have a fantastic crop, them finally succumbing at the very end of the season.  I have always been told that it is borderline okay.  I want tomatos, so it is the choice I make. :)

And it's not systemic.