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This topic was
discussed recently in the Telegraph Garden Advice column - Thorny
Problems with Helen Yemm on 30 May 2008:
"Peach leaf curl
How can I get control of peach
leaf curl that has infected my two peach trees over the past two
years? They are well established (about 8 years old), have for the
past four years thrived against a wall and have started to produce
plenty of fruit. By August last year both trees were heavily
infected and I collected all the fallen leaves, sprayed them with
Bordeaux mixture, repeating this in February. This year they are
badly diseased again. What else can I do? Christopher
Kay,via email
This nasty, disfiguring and
debilitating fungal disease is widespread and also attacks
nectarine and ornamental almond trees. In spring, the foliage may
temporarily appear to be normal but quickly becomes distorted, the
leaves developing red swollen blisters.
These leaves eventually drop off
and the tree may seem to recover later in the season. Indeed, it
may appear to the uninitiated that all is well. However, as with
all fungal diseases, the spores linger and the result is a general
unevenness of growth, the tree developing straggly branches that
are bare for much of their length. Fruit production is inevitably
affected too, as the tree gradually goes downhill.
You must be extremely annoyed;
since you did everything you could to combat this disease -apart,
that is, from one thing. It is now understood that the fungal
spores of peach leaf curl are spread by splashy rain in the first
few months of the year. By protecting trees from rain in spring you
can go a long way to conquering the disease.
You should pick up all the dead
leaves again, and spray as you did last year. But you now have
plenty of time to install a temporary rain hat for your trees, by
putting a batten on the wall above them to which you can attach
some tough polythene that you can drop down over them from late
January to March (having sprayed again). This can apparently do the
trick.
Harrod Horticultural (0845 402
5300; www.harrodhorticultural.com) now has a
more elegant solution: a purpose-made fruit tree protection frame
that you can fix on a wall, with an optional plastic
canopy."
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