I bought a Hardy Red Nectarine this spring, potted up and left open to the elements. I live in Victoria. There is no evidence of Peach Leaf Curl on it. Does anyone know more about this variety or has had some years trialing it? The (only) one listing of it on the web only says that it is promising.
My hardy red gets leaf curl in some years, but not others, and it recovers quickly with a second set of leaves. This year was particularly bad, but the tree looks great now. The biggest problem with it is poor fruit yield, which may be due to the tree still being fairly young (only 5 years since transplanting) or more likely the problem is that is blooms too early for local insects to pollinate it. I have a mason bee house right next to the tree but the blossoms are usually finished before even the mason bees stir. I think the tree needs more warmth in early spring than our climate can provide. But the tree does well otherwise and seems to do as well or better than any other variety I've seen growing locally.
It's spelled 'Hardired' and is supposed to be good for this area. Maybe "as far as it goes" should be added to that. http://www.raintreenursery.com/catalog/productdetails.cfm?ProductID=C565
I grew Hardired, but it eventually died from peach leaf curl. Not too resistant in my book. I'm growing Kreibich nectarine in the Seattle area and it is beautiful tree that seems very resistant to curl. The tree fruited this year, but then last week all the rain cause the nectarines to split horribly, becoming beacons for earwigs and fruit eating ants. It was very disappointing.
In western Washington most peach varieties are subject to leaf curl, coryneum blight and brown rot, diseases which require fungicides or other methods for prevention and control. Low productivity can also be a serious problem, since cold wet weather at bloom time often results in poor fruit set. Nectarines tend to be even more susceptible to these problems and in addition often suffer from skin cracking and rot.... Hardired (yellow flesh) is the only nectarine recommended as consistently productive for our cool maritime climate conditions. Fruit is semi-free stone, good quality, but has some skin russeting. Very susceptible to leaf curl. http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/eb0937/eb0937.pdf
Thank you for the help and the link to the reference manual. Very helpful!! I guess I will grow it under an eaves or some other overhead cover to be safe. I had been assuming this when I bought it, but then it looked so healthy when I left out this summer.