Audrey:

Your little peach tree has a serious case of peach leaf curl. This is a fungal disease that must be prevented before it starts, and that means dormant spraying both in late fall, and in early spring just before bud break with a strong dormant copper spray such as Kocide. PLC overwinters on the tree itself.

The tree will probably survive this episode, but perhaps not the next.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Thank you Don!
Would Neem Oil help? Or "Concern"? It is a Copper Soap Fungicide. I am asking about those two things because I have them on hand.

Audrey

Audrey:

Once curl is underway, the affected leaves cannot be saved, and the disease must run its course. As far as I have been able to determine, neem oil is useless except for its fragrant perfume, and if it's the copper soap fungicide from Gardens Alive! that is worse than useless.

Peach leaf curl is a disease that must be prevented by eradicating the overwintering spores from the tree, and that is done with a strong copper spray like Kocide with a high percentage of fixed copper. Copper soap, which is around 2 percent fixed copper, will not cut the mustard even as a dormant spray. Peach leaf curl is a serious disease and requires serious medicine.

Curl normally dies out as warm weather arrives. It prospers best in the cool, rainy weather of early spring, so hope for warm, dry weather.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Thanks again!