Peach leaf curl

Warts and all. Enough of the frilly flowers and the gorgeous roses and swanning about the Ardèche, visiting friends and Having Lunch.  It’s time to show the dark side.

Peach leaf curl in the orchard.

Eight years now we have had this annoying problem in the orchard. I cut down the white peach trees which carried the infection. But if you are growing fruit organically, you have to endure the problem coming back year after year.

I have already picked the infected leaves from this nectarine once this year.  And today I went down with a large bucket for the second batch.

Bright red. You can’t miss the blistered leaves.  It is quite an impressive infection.

The leaves go straight into the rubbish bin. No composting these evil leaves.

And every year I say ‘nectarine, this is your last’.  But look at the absurd number of fruit that is gamely growing on this miserable tree.

I can’t possibly cut it down with all this fruit.

I even found a bit of peach leaf curl on the very ends of the Noir de Meched cherry tree nearby.  Will this infection never cease?