"Flim-flam and cow manure both smell sweet at first, but the manure will make your soil richer.
Be a pinch-penny with salesmen, and generous with your cowboys. Only one of
'em is working to keep you in business."
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I read that the foliar analysis should be done earlier in the season. However, I was told by a lab employee that as long as the leaves are fully mature, healthy, and collected from the base of this season’s growth they will give accurate results. I collected the leaves in September which was 30 days after the last harvest and 30 days before the leaves started to change color. The results suggested 30-40 pounds of Nitrogen per acre which is pretty much standard. They also recommended 3 pounds of foliar sulfur and 1/2 gallon of zinc chelate on all the varieties.
The main reason for the testing was the to investigate the youngest 1 acre block of trees. The eastern 1/2 of the block had died before I purchased the farm. I was told the remaining trees historically produced few peaches and if they did produce the peaches were usually small. Before removing the remaining 70 trees I figured I’d try a foliar analysis. The results show that small block is the only one with a copper deficiency. Based on brief research copper is important in plant metabolism. According to the farm notes another area was planted with the same variety one year prior. That area was sampled separately and specifically compared to rule out the possibility that any noted the deficiency in the younger block is merely a varietal attribute. Since the lab had no idea if any block had any problems it is encouraging the problem block has a unique recommendation that is specifically important to metabolism. Time will tell if the analysis was money well spent or a waste of time and money that encouraged wasting more.
Believe you could have nailed it. My tissue samples never really produced any actionable results.
Speaking of pruning that was mentioned earlier, we try to move through the trees quickly using methods mostly gathered from pruning videos on You Tube featuring Dr. Mike Parker. Most growers here keep the trees low and wide like in his videos so all the fruit can be picked from the ground.
I noticed trees in Virginia and Colorado are planted much closer and trained differently to something like quad V where the trees are much taller which requires a ladder for picking. Most of these growers pick peaches like apples and dump into bulk bins. Most larger NC growers pick in handle baskets. We pick in Macro 9 plastic totes.
I don’t head all of my fruiting wood as suggested in Parker’s video and I don’t thin the fruit as severely as suggested either but my yields, size and quality are good. Also noticed too much thinning can produce peaches that are too large and do not fit in a 1/2 peck bag well.
We try to process and act on the best information we can find but sometimes the farm is just an expensive science experiment. The results are not certain and even with trial and error we have found that what worked great last year may not work this year or next year.
One of those experiments was with a copper spray designed to reduce the ice nucleation bacteria that promotes ice crystals that damage peach tissue during a frost event. Seemed to work great the first time we tried it although the PHD “experts” were skeptical.
Last season I used “Thrive” urea manufactured by Mears.
Some manufacturers actually make a low biuret urea specifically for foliar application. I couldn’t find that locally, but the Thrive product is lower in biuret than other ureas I’ve used.
Most of the time they don’t put the information on the bag. I’ve found the info sometimes on a manufacturers website and once I called the manufacturer.
That’s all true, except for foliar N. We prune after August because that’s the only time we have to do it, even though I know it makes the trees more winter tender. We just finished up the apple and tomato season, so we are pretty much starting to prune now. We can’t wait till spring because there are too many spring chores to do.
I’ve read that foliar N is rapidly absorbed even in the fall, as long as most of the leaves are healthy and still on the tree. I’ve read absorption rates are very high.
Rick, as you know I’ve sprayed this several times, but I think I’ve lost faith in it. I had hopes based on some info you provided (and Kocide is labeled for it). But…as you point out some peach specialists are skeptical.
The biggest reason I’ve become skeptical is that the product’s purpose is to prevent ice nucleation. I’ve sprayed it before frost and gone out on frosty mornings, and as far as I can tell, there seems to be just as much frost everywhere. On the trees, on the blooms, on the grass, so it doesn’t seem to be accomplishing it’s own stated purpose, as far as I can tell.
I’m thinking it may prevent frost down to something like 30F, but at that temp frost damage is going to be minimal anyway.
I’d love to see some peer reviewed research based trials on copper, but haven’t come across anything yet. If you come across something, please send it my way.
I’m not aware of any research which is probably why the peach specialist was skeptical.
I can’t offer any valid research either but I had a huge peach crop when I sprayed the copper after a big frost . Other peach growers in my area had almost no peaches that same year. Could be the copper, my site or just luck. Just another science experiment but one that did not cost much or take much time.
Lots of folks in NC spraying urea on Apple trees to accelerate decomposition of leaves and pruning residue. It’s not standard practice on Peaches as far as I know.
We had a pretty serious frost last year where the grass crunched when I walked on it at 7 AM and I did not spray the copper. Still had a pretty good crop.
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This reminds me of an old Jerry Clower skit where Marcel Ledbetter hung a section of chain under his truck so it would drag the pavement as he drove down the road. When asked why, he replied “Standard oil does it and they’ve made millions”.
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That would be near Route 4, Liberty Mississippi 
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@Olpea, really appreciate your detailed descriptions. I notice that there doesn’t seem to be a huge emphasis on peach leaf curl resistant varieties on this forum, except for coastal PNW growers, and maybe some threads I have yet to find. Is it not a big issue in your area? Or maybe PLC is considered easy enough to treat with copper so it’s not worth being limited to those varieties? (Frost, Q18/Salish summer, Indian Free, Betty etc) I’m curious, how much do you think PLC resistance is worth considering in peach variety selection?
Actually very little consideration for our orchard. As you alluded, PLC is so easily treated, it’s one of the least pests which worry us. One spray during the winter with chlorothalonil completely defeats it.
There are so many other characteristics of peaches, tolerance of PLC is very very far down the list. We don’t consider it at all for peach variety selection.
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I got Flavorich and PF 8-Ball this year. Anyone tasted them that can report?
I planted a Romestar a week ago, which doesn’t seem to be available in the U.S.
It’s a cross developed in Rome Italy from Fayette and Redgold.
I don’t think it’ll fruit this year as it’s pretty small
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Too bad it’s banned in the European Union. It sounds great
A late winter application of Bordeaux Mixture should work well against peach leaf curl in your climate.
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After several years of complete devastation of my peach and nectarine, I discovered this page and found out when the spraying needs to occur.
It has been so bad I decided to try something stronger just in case, so I got some Ziram and sprayed on 25 Nov, 10 Jan and 15 Feb.
I oversprayed because I need to see if I can control it or cut the trees down
I am going to warn members again that productivity of varieties is very much regionally based. Last year when we had a sudden drop to under 20F on about March 30th, the only peaches I harvested, and I got enough to fill my freezer, were PF28 and Messina, which are consistent heavy bearers here and not so in KS. Indian Free and Autumn Star also had good crops on smaller trees but, by then, wildlife was out of control hungry. Flavor May had fruit as well and I didn’t take note of all the varieties in my nursery that set fruit. Tango’s set a great crop but I didn’t protect the fruit from coons in time and for the first time they destroyed a tree’s crop of greenish peaches. All of my nectarines, peaches, plums and pears flowered profusely and were wonderfully tended to by native pollinators but the ovaries and/or ovules had been killed unexpectedly by the frost (don’t believe the bees). I believe even my earlier blooming apples were wiped out by that hard frost. At the time, the only thing showing any green was J. plums and the apricot trees growing against my house. I got a modest crop of cots, even one tree out in the open had a few fruit.
What doesn’t work well in the mid-west may perform beautifully in the east. Rutger’s and the PF series’ varieties usually are reliable in my S. NY location. Coral Star is another variety that doesn’t bear consistently on Olpea’s site that is very reliable here.
Why not use copper? That’s the standard non-synthetic go-to. Once you get it under control you may not have to spray every year if you have resistant varieties.
Sites I manage usually only have certain varieties that get it.
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European regulations really make getting chemicals here very difficult. They have even reduced the copper content so much that I can only get something 35%. I don’t know if my copper spraying in the past failed because it was weak or because I sprayed too late and I don’t want to waste another year finding out
Just to illustrate the prevailing ignorance where I live, I asked a local nursery if he could get resistant types like Avalon Pride and he said resistant varieties don’t exist. I can order from other countries in Europe but it’s not cheap. I already bought the Ziram so if it works, I can expand
If you spray after leaves are out nothing can work and I’ve always gotten control with copper, although chlorothalonil is much cheaper and at least as affective and devoid of fear of gradual soil contamination.
Can’t you buy trees bare root from nurseries that supply commercial growers. All purpose nurseries here almost never have staff with any knowledge of fruit trees. The commercial suppliers certainly know something about relative resistance of varieties.
I hate it when tradespeople state misinformation as if it was established fact in order to feel important, but that is a universal human trait.
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In my state Ziram is listed as a 4 against peach curl which is the same as Chlorothalonil and a little better than Copper at a 3.
It has a “Danger” label with a 30 day PHI in the US.
Leaf curl is not too bad here and we normally spray oil and copper at the same time
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