Friday, November 12, 2010

The Ongoing Battle With Leaf Curl - How to Save Your Stone Fruit

I'll admit it. I'm on my last gardening legs when it comes to stone fruit. For the past few years I've watched as my peaches and nectarines have battled, fruitlessly, against the dreaded peach leaf curl.

This year I'm determined to follow through on a rigorous anti-leaf curl campaign to see if I can actually produce sufficient fruit to make all this work worthwhile. But before I submit fully to chemicals, I'm going semi-organic and placing my faith in copper oxychloride this season.

So if you're in the northern hemisphere, then now, at the end of autumn, is the time to start your campaign.

Leaf Curl - An Overview.

Peach leaf curl is a fungus with spores that hibernate on your tree over winter, ready to burst forth and wreak havoc on your leaf and fruit buds early in spring. It causes excessive leaf fall, damages your fruit resulting in an early drop and, if severe, can lead to overall decline in the health of your tree. Leaf curl tends to be worse in humid areas, and once you spot the tell-tale signs early in the growing season, the best you can hope for is to limit its spread.

So the answer is to deal with the hibernating spores over winter, so they don't infect your emerging leaf buds.

And as with all gardening approaches there's the good, the so-so and the 'only if you have to' options.

The good:

An organic approach is always worth trying first. There are various organic options for leaf curl including spraying with neem oil, using a compost tea and watering in washing soda around the drip line. There is also a school of thought that you simply remove and burn infected leaves as soon as you see them. However this requires daily discipline and doesn't really fit with my hectic working mother lifestyle.

I'll have to be honest and say the organic approach hasn't worked for me (although I've only just heard about the washing soda option so I'm giving that a go). But I'm also moving on to something slightly more heavy duty...

The so-so:

This season I'm placing my faith in copper oxychloride. Readily available at garden centres, it is considered an organic option by some, but I'll place it in the so-so basket.

I plan to spray every 6 weeks throughout the dormant period in an attempt to kill off the spores. Then repeat spray at bud swelling and bud burst. It's important to gain full coverage when you spray, and to spray only on dry days.

Lime sulphur is also considered highly effective against leaf curl and is permitted for use by certified organic orchardists. Lime sulphur and copper oxychloride are not compatible however, so choose one or the other - not both!

Only if you have to:

There are a multitude of commercial fungicides available from your garden centre which will also help to address your leaf curl problem. These will include chlorothalonil, amongst others. If you choose this route it's best to speak with the staff at your local garden centre who will be able to help you choose the best product.

For now, however, I'm going to persevere before resorting to the chemicals. Wish me luck!




Fi McMurray, a gardening enthusiast and author, began gardening organically after the birth of her children. She has been involved with 2 award winning gardens at prestigious International Flower Shows in Auckland, New Zealand. Her latest book, "An Introduction to Organic Gardening", is available at www.fimcmurray.com

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