If your Peach or Nectarine tree looks like it has been taken over by aliens, you may be in a battle with Peach Leaf Curl (aren’t you the lucky gardener?). This nastiness is a fungal infection that curls, distorts, and creates red splotches on the foliage. It can also impact the flowers and fruit with scaly distorted areas, that cause drop. It’s not pretty!
This fungus (Taphrina deformans) hides in the bark and bud scales during winter dormancy, then emerges when the air is cool and moist, and the foliage is returning in the spring. It may be nasty and downright scary to look at, but it rarely kills the tree, and it can be treated. If you’ve caught it early enough, you can pull off and destroy affected leaves, but if it’s taken over the tree (and it does so very quickly), you’ll need to wait until fall to treat it. Once the tree has lost all of its leaves, you can spray a copper-based fungicide and prune all infected shoots. Be sure to clean up all the debris and fallen leaves as they can transmit this nastiness to other trees.
It may take a full season to cure your trees of this fungus, but think of those lovely sweet peaches and nectarines that you love so much. Peach Leaf Drop is a bit of a bother, but these wonderful stone fruits are well worth it in the end!
Book your 30-minute free consultation now by calling Kathleen at Gardens by La Voy.
707.753.1445
