This is a fungal disease of peaches and nectarines that causes red blistering on the leaves.
Affected leaves should be removed or will fall off gradually and the second flush of leaves is usually free of it.
Sometimes, the fruit can be affected too with rough bumpy patches but only in the most severe cases.
Control is quite tricky- Once a tree is infected it is too late to control the infection for that year, just remove infected leaves and dispose of them.
Make sure you are feeding and looking after the tree well. Some people use seaweed or garlic
The best way to avoid leaf curl is to grow them under glass/cover as this avoids rain splash which spreads the infection easily around the tree.
Long term you used to be able to buy a copper based fungicide to treat this but this was withdrawn from the domestic market in 2014. There are now no chemicals available at garden centres which are listed for the control of peach leaf curl.
Some varieties of peach show resistance to the disease. Avalon Pride is a fairly new variety, and is definitely more resistant than others, but it is not immune.
At Southern Fruit Trees, we do treat all our peaches and nectarines up to 3 times yearly with a fungicide, which does help to control the disease. But do persevere with your peach or nectarine- it’s well worth it!
