[katlover]

Argh! My poor little peach tree! It has peach tree leaf curl - is it too late to treat the leaves? Or should I just remove all the tiny budding peaches and forget it for this year? Next year (having done some reading) I'll know to treat them in January whether they show signs of the fungus or not!   

[Bing]

mine is in its second year fromseed ang got PLC (peach leaf curl) this year. google says there is no cure after it is infected. You can only wait to fall when all tje leaves dropped, then spray with unti fungus. however, one poster brushed leaves with bleach (1:10 mixed water, and claiming it worked well for him.) I will give it a go this weekend as mine little tree only has 30ish leaves on it. will let you know how it goes.

[Aunt Sally]

Remove infected leaves before they produce a white bloom of fungal spores.  The plant will produce some more leaves.  Treat in autumn and winter as you already know.

[Trillium]

Also give it a good liquid feed right now and watering if you're not getting much rain. Manure tea, seaweed tea, fertilizer, anything that will rebuild the tree's strength.

[katlover]

Thanks everyone.

[Lawrence]

I have two Peach and one Nectarine, all infected, would I be better off burning them and buying new trees?
I really can't see the benefit in treating them every year, all the fruit falls off anyway!
Or if I keep going, will it eventually go away?

[Aunt Sally]

You should be treating them every autumn/winter and protecting from the rain in spring.

If you replant you'd have to do exactly the same with the new plants.

[Bing]

I have two Peach and one Nectarine, all infected, would I be better off burning them and buying new trees?
I really can't see the benefit in treating them every year, all the fruit falls off anyway!
Or if I keep going, will it eventually go away?

Do you get it each and every year? If yes I would seriously consider ditching mine. It germinated last Spring but wasn't infected in its first year and now it is 5 feet tall.

[cheshirecheese]

Sorry - just noticed there's another very recent post on this subject - I tried to delete mine, but the system won't let me!

I have just realised with horror that my beloved peach tree has peach leaf curl  

I know I need to pick off all the infected leaves, but is there anything else I can do in the hope that any fruit won't be affected?  It was absolutely covered in blossom a few weeks back and looked the picture of health ... I'm SOOOOO disappointed!!

[Yorkie]

Hi there CC, I've moved your post into this thread so you can see them all together 

[cheshirecheese]

Thanks Yorkie!

[Bing]

I have taken out the infected leaves and left the plant for two days for the wounds to seal, then sprayed the bleach 1:15 water mixture. also watered the tree with rhubarb leaf tea.

  see how it goes now.

[Trillium]

The disease is blown in on wind and rain so there's almost nothing you can do to prevent it. Some say that if you put up a plastic tent thing over the tree that the rain won't touch the leaves and affect it, but its an awful lot of trouble for a 50-50 chance of not getting it, especially if you have a large tree or more than one. Because there's always a chance of splash up.

Yes, once it starts, the problem is likely to happen every year but it's not worth getting worried about. Simply do as instructed - pick off and pick up all disease leaves, bin (never compost them) them, feed and water the tree well soon as you see it happen, and the tree will recover beautifully. Mine have had it 10 years running since I first planted them and every year I get a mega harvest off every tree. The disease doesn't infect the fruit, only the leaves.

Same goes for nectarines.

[Bing]

The disease is blown in on wind and rain so there's almost nothing you can do to prevent it. Some say that if you put up a plastic tent thing over the tree that the rain won't touch the leaves and affect it, but its an awful lot of trouble for a 50-50 chance of not getting it, especially if you have a large tree or more than one. Because there's always a chance of splash up.

Yes, once it starts, the problem is likely to happen every year but it's not worth getting worried about. Simply do as instructed - pick off and pick up all disease leaves, bin (never compost them) them, feed and water the tree well soon as you see it happen, and the tree will recover beautifully. Mine have had it 10 years running since I first planted them and every year I get a mega harvest off every tree. The disease doesn't infect the fruit, only the leaves.

Same goes for nectarines.

will it pass to other vegetables if I compost the PLC leaves?

[Trillium]

It's a pretty specific disease and unlikely to pass to other crops (other than nectarines), however, by composting it you incubate and propagate the disease spores and you'll likely get it worse in following years. As well as innoculate your neighbours' peach trees. You won't get so many infected leaves that binning is a problem. Its the only item I bin.