What is going on with the leaves on a couple of my peach trees? This isn’t the normal peach curl issue. We were awfully dry here recently but we’ve now gotten decent rain the past 2 weeks. No amount of watering seems to affect it either. Has anyone seen this before? Thanks!
How hot has it been there and how much rain have you gotten there? I noticed a lot of trees in my area that look like yours there.
We were pretty dry early in the summer. The lawn was turning brown. I have been watering my trees to make up for it but it never seemed to make a difference. The leaves have been like this for 4-6 weeks. It appears to me like they aren’t getting enough water.
You’ve got it figured out. That’s from being hot and dry. Watering won’t change the leaf shape. At least not by much. IMO it’s not serious. My apples look like that more than the peaches. But the apple trees still function just fine. They bear nice apples and bloom heavily every year. No biennial bearing like seen in more mild climates with more clouds and rain.
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Thank you for the feedback. That makes me feel a little better. This is a Gala peach and it’s one of my favorites. I really don’t want to lose it but I don’t want a diseased tree to threaten the rest of them. Sounds like it may be okay. Im in 5B East Central Illinois. We’ve had some really dry summers the past 4 or 5 years. Worse yet, we’ve had some extreme winter temps down to -12 where we’ve lost all of out fruit buds. Good thing this is just a hobby. Much respect to those commercially farming.
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I’m feeling much better that my favorite tree isn’t dying. Once you see the curling due to these factors, do you ever see the leaves return to normal? Even if late in the season?
The new leaves will likely be normal if weather returns to normal. But the old leaves won’t uncurl.
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Thanks for the info. I guess watching any new growth may be the key. I appreciate the help!
Peach and other fruit trees can go into what may look like drought stress after winter freeze damage. That usually manifests as individual limbs showing stress and dropping leaves. At times the whole tree can suddenly collapse. Your trees don’t have that look. But I could be wrong. If it is freeze damage the tree should be worse soon. And probably would have collapsed during the first hot dry spell.
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Watering it will keep it surviving but you ( as well as in my area) need a good long deep soaking rain. I lost a new tree I planted because of the same issue, no rain. It had basically no roots and the no rain and extremely early hot periods ( in the 100’s) starting in June just baked this new tree. I should have watered it more , in hindsight, but it is what it is.
Just keep watering it and keep it surviving until you get some rain.
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