Redhaven is one of the variety that can curl. Early Redhaven shows up in many test results. May be you experiment not spraying it and see if your tree shakes it off.
That’s great news. Is your Charlotte “Early Charlotte” variety?
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It is only marked as Charlotte from One Green World.
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@cdamarjian Which of the trees have/had produced reliably (when they did produce) and what were their yield rates. Also, H272 is not a curl resistant variety correct?
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HW 272 description in Raintree catalog:
“Considered resistant to peach leaf curl, it ripens for us in August. Please plant any peach in the hottest spot you have, as peachs prefers as much heat as they can get! It has a low incidence of split pits. Patented by Ag. Canada.”
From reading the other replies to this post, I have to conclude that my environment is a negative outlier for fungal diseases, specifically PLC and canker. The relatively slow growth of all the peaches probably reflects the less than optimum environment.
By comparison, I have 2 nectarines, Hardired and Harglow, growing in 3’ high beds under a polycarbonate cover - with no PLC and no canker. They have reached 10+ feet in 3 years and are loaded with nectarines. The combination of a cover and well-drained soil has made a huge difference.
As far as my uncovered, in ground peaches, Avalon Pride has been the best performer, outgrowing PLC after about 12 years, and producing peaches every year with a brix of about 14-16. At this point I get about 100 (thinned) large peaches on a 15’ tree.
Next best, with about 50 peaches on a 10’ tree, is Nanaimo.The peaches are smaller with lower brix.
My best tasting peaches are Betty and Salish Summer, but repeated PLC attacks have stunted their growth so now very little production.
Oregon Curl Free is just starting production.Fruit is small but taste seems promising.
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I have gone through test reports from WSU trials and HW272 was rated highly for production and taste. However, it was not classified as curl resistant variety. For PCL resistant varieties they specially denoted the variety with a suffix LCR.
Would it be possible to plant a tree next spring on a berm/mound and fertilize it well. I tend to think lack of nutrients and your water table issues are probably the main reason for lack of vigor. Add to that ravage caused by PLC the trees don’t get much chance to recover.
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I agree that my high water table, wet winter, and native soil are curtailing growth. My more recent stone fruit plantings are in raised beds filled with a mix of compost, native soil, and aged manure. As you can imagine, these trees leap out of their beds within a year!. Haven’t yet wanted to take a chance with not spraying… but that would be the best test for evaluating PLC resistant claims.
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Have your trees fruited consistently and how does the yield look like.
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From my learnings on this issue so far resistance to PLC is true and backed by plenty of research. The process of how the tree builds resistance is has been identified. For example, the Cesarini variety from Italy I’ve listed above is the one tested extensively and this variety has hyper reaction to the infection at the earlier stage and drops the emerging leaves before the fungus inside the leaf tissue to grow and create more spores. I think varieties available here have similar process perhaps equivalent to the Cesarini but US varieties haven’t been studied scientifically except from general observations year after year. My hypothesis is post infection the tree should to be cared (with ample fertilizer and water) so that it can grow back stronger. This is the reason why all resistant varieties come with a note that they need to be sprayed for 2-3 years when their growth as juveniles is to get strong roots and trunk.
Interestingly the white peach varieties have a correlation with having higher resistance. One good way to test this is to fertilize and care for your Salish Summer so that it puts out 4-5 ft of growth next two summers. After that don’t spray that tree see how it does.
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Do you mean:
The physiology of the US varieties has not been extensively studied, just general observations year after year.
My three trees are pretty young still so there has not been much fruit. It has been very light like just a few from each tree. The oldest one (5 years) is Indian free and it has had more but did not produce this year at all. I will give each one a couple more years to prove their worth. If they do not, I will probably replace them with a fig, apple and pear.
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the only time such an extensive effort was in 1900 by USDA and published as "Peach Leaf Curl: Its Nature and Treatment. Its like 200+ pages. FWIW, they have tried to correlate gland type to susceptibility where the 6 resistant varieties they found across multiple regions (including Oregon) the serrate types were less susceptible compared to reniform or globular.
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My Oregon Curlfree hasn’t been sprayed once and only had pretty slight PLC this year. Its main branches grew at least 4 feet this year even though I pruned it heavily in summer. And that was after an unusually cold and wet fall, winter, and spring, so you’d expect high PLC pressure.
I’ll definitely update here in the spring, though. I planted it bareroot in spring 2022, so maybe it just got lucky its first winter?
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Again, you’re referring to physiology?
Thats correct. Frost variety is considered as the baseline for curl resistance, since it’s available for over 30 years while other varieties are new. I haven’t come across any research/study understand the tree behavior when mounting a response to the infection.
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I think it will get some curl again and still survive. It would be beneficial to spray now to kill whatever the remaining spores from current season still over wintering on the bark/twigs when the tree is still on the smaller side.
Apparently some experiments done in 1900’s has show control of curl by just spraying “lime” this is interesting because lime washing has been an old practice and still practiced in permaculture. Lime spray makes the tree surface alkaline thus inhospitable for the pathogen to survive.
I am running some experiments on non-resistant varieties using frequent application of H202 throughout the winter at least a week apart and as many times as possible before the bud break. With an objective to reduce or eliminate the pathogen load gradually by using a potent oxidizer that will breakdown quickly and without damaging my yard ecosystem.
I ran through my idea with plant pathology expert in my local extension. He said it should work in theory as long I manage to do the multiple applications.
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I don’t do any spraying, anything that needs spraying won’t last long in my yard. So far it seems fine with no spray.
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Thats fine and will work as long as you can keep your tree healthy and vigorous i.e. plant of food and water.
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While searching for articles on peach leaf curl, I’ve seen a few that mention aphids as a vector of PLC and a few bacterial diseases.
Here’s an article by peach pathology researchers in China, Spain, and the U.S. They do not consider PLC a major disease of peach.
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I am growing 3 seedlings from pits of the Iowa Peach Erica grows at her Catnip Farm. I started them in Albuquerque in 2018. I left 3 seedlings in Abilene, TX with gardener1 in 2019. We both have harvested small peaches from them that are quite tasty. In 2 growing seasons here in Salem, OR, I’ve seen one leaf with one spot of peach leaf curl. My other peach trees were defoliated by PLC both years.
I have also started about a dozen seedlings from the Iowa white sold by JLHudson. They are 1 y/o, about a foot tall, and had no PLC even though larger peach trees shading them were loaded with the fungus.
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