Peach Leaf Curl

The #1 nemesis of every peach and nectarine grower.

This is an Elberta we planted in March 2020... long before we thought Sweetwater was ever going to be a real thing. This girl gave us 8 peaches last year that we savored!

Taphrina deformans - a fungus that can infect all peach trees in spring from bud break until the leaves are fully emerged. Here in Kansas, it’s one of the worse peach diseases we deal with.

Whenever I have a growing problem, I start out asking these questions...

1. Why did it happen?

We had a persistently cool and wet spring, the IDEAL conditions for peach leaf curl. This fungus overwinters in the bark crevices of the tree and can reinfect year after year.

2. Is it dangerous?

No. It is more ugly than anything. It will not hurt the tree unless it is infected year after year.

3. What does nature do about it?

Once infected, there is no treatment. Nature will cause all of the infected leaves to fall off. Then new leaves will grow. The tree will still produce good leaves and good fruit in future years. But sadly this year all of the energy must go back into healing, so any fruit will be sacrificed.

4. What am I going to do about it?

I will follow nature’s path. I will help the tree by pulling off the most infected leaves and burning them. I will pick up fallen leaves and do the same to prevent reinfection.

The growing of new leaves taxes the trees energy, so I will water well and apply compost tea to feed the roots.

Then this fall, after all of the leaves have fallen, I will apply a tree paste (cow manure, effective microbes, kaolin clay, rain water) to the trunk and scaffold branches to hopefully prevent any future spread.