Hoping someone can help, I have a nectarine I grew from seed about 6-7 years ago which I planted in the ground last year.
It’s a couple metres tall and is generally very healthy, however, the last few years it’s not lost it’s leaves during winter and this has caused it to get peach leaf curl in spring when last years leaves finally fall off.
Once the new leaves start coming through, they’re heavily infected and it takes a month or so to eliminate it entirely - then the tree grows normally throughout summer.
What’s more annoying is that all flowers die because of the peach leaf curl.
I fertilise it in spring to early summer, am I over feeding it causing it to retain leaves? Or under feeding it meaning it’s trying to continue getting nutrients?
Is there a way I can force my tree into dormancy to stop this from happening??
What is your zone? I have some peaches in zone 8A that are planted under a plastic dome to protect from PLC carried by rain. They are PLC-free. My other peaches are planted in the open and, if not sprayed, are full of PLC.
The open-planted trees lose all their leaves in the fall while the protected trees do not lose last year’s leaves until late spring…and sometimes both old and new leaves are still on the protected trees in April. Holding onto the leaves does not seem to affect flowering or fruit production.
In my case, holding onto leaves does not cause PLC. Protection from rain prevents PLC.
Peach leaf curl is caused by the rain. From what I have heard from experts without copper fungicide you end up getting peach leaf curl after only about 10 inches of rain. The way you prevent it is copper fungicide. They will go dormant again in the coming months because winter is happening soon. With peaches you are supposed to spray with copper fungicide and a dormant oil. You will also need to use another spray because you have nectarines and nectarines get thrips. I believe it is called captain Jack’s spinosad.
Yes, strip the leaves. Due to my climate, my apple trees will not always drop their leaves. So I will manually strip them in January so that they have a dormant period. I start from the tip of each branch and lightly wrap my hand/fingers around the branch and then move my hand down the branch (holding the tip of the branch for stability.) This is an easy way to strip a bunch of leaves at once rather than trying to pick them off one by one.