Seems like my first year trees always tend to hold on to their leaves a little longer than they should, but this is ridiculous. By the way, we got our first snowfall yesterday afternoon.
The rest of my trees look like they should at this time of year
You can pluck all the leaves off and forced it to go into a dormant mode.
Same with me here in Delaware.
Kevin,
We’ve had young trees which hold their leaves so long, they actually have to have them froze off. We still have a few young trees which look like your Indian free, but I imagine the 12F temps we got yesterday will take the leaves off.
Nice pic.
Any issue spraying copper or lime sulfur with the leaves still on this late? I have the same problem - the younger trees do not want to go dormant.
I’ve read somewhere at some time that 50% of the leaves need to be off for spraying a leaf curl spray. As you know the fungus infects the petiole scar, so it’s helpful for the fungicide to work by having exposure to the scar once the leaf drops.
That said, I generally spray the orchard when most of the leaves drop. During that time there are generally lots of young trees with a full canopy of leaves. I spray them at the same time and haven’t noticed any leaf curl on them. But, I wouldn’t describe leaf curl pressure here as really heavy. Unlike some places on the west coast, leaf curl can always be controlled with one spray here (at least with chlorothalonil)
Thanks for the great information!
