Hi! We have what we believe is a nectarine tree in out backyard. The new leaves have come in recently and some of them have this weird thing happening to them (see picture). Can anyone tell me what is going on and what I should do about it? Thanks so much!
I would try to pick off the affected leaves (if there are not too many), then make a soapy wash of about a tablespoon of liquid dish soap to one gallon of water and spray the plant very good underneath and on top. The soap will not hurt the plant at all. It will get rid of any little pests that might be attacking the plant. If you've had any cold weather recently then the leaves are just reacting to that and it will be ok once the weather levels off and is warm.
Hi Autumn...as Ron mentioned, this is peach leaf curl, a fungal infection. At this stage there is nothing you can do about this years infestation. You could remove and burn or dispose in the garbage infected leaves if there aren't too many, otherwise just rake up dropped leaves in the autumn and dispose of those then. Control is fungicide sprays in late winter before buds open, I believe either lime sulphur or bordeaux mixture works at that time. The spores have to be killed before they grow into the bud tissue...which happens around the swelling of buds time in late winter/early spring...then it is once again too late to try to control this disease.
Thank you all so much for your replies. there are not too many infected leaves but the tree is too tall to get to the top. because the tree has the infection now, does that mean that it will always be infected until treated? or could it possibly be fine next year? Thanks again!
If too tall to reach them, the important thing is to pick up all the infected leaves as soon as they drop off (summer to autumn). The fungal spores overwinter on the fallen leaves, so if you clear them all away, there should be no spores to re-infect it next spring.
