This week I talked to my readers about my workout at the pool in our area. He wanted to know about the peach leaf curve, and I said I would do some research.
In dry weather, you need to water regularly. Apply 5 gallons per square yard every 10 days until there is prolonged rainfall. Never let the soil around the roots dry out, which is important for new plants.
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You also need to eat potash occasionally in the spring and at the stage of fruit swelling. Peach is a good breeder and can be a great steward. Mulching is a good plan to apply every year. These helpful tips are just the beginning.
Also known as peach leaf blight, it is a disease caused by fungal infections and dehydration. Peach curves affect flowers, fruits, leaves, and figs with ornamental flowers and nectar.
It is one of the most common diseases for gardeners who grow these trees. The distorted red leaves are easily seen in the spring. When severe, the disease can severely reduce fruit production.
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How to identify peach leaf rotation
Peach twigs first appear as red spots on growing leaves in the spring. These areas become thick and fragile, causing the leaves to roll and become severely distorted. The leaf grows on the soft spores of the fungus, and the thick areas turn yellow and then grayish white.
The damaged leaves later turn yellow or brown and may remain on the tree or fall off. As long as the wet weather does not continue, they are usually replaced by regular second-growing leaves. Loss of leaves and secondary production will result in reduced tree growth and fruit production. Splitting in the spring can expose the branches to sunburn.
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Peach curves include young green branches and sprouts. Damaged shoots are thick, stunted, distorted, and often die. In the orchards, only a pale, wrinkled area grows occasionally. Over time, these infected fruit areas become cork and tend to disintegrate. If a leaf curve infection develops and is not controlled for many years, the tree should be reduced and removed.
Two weeks after the leaves emerge from the bushes, leaf marks appear. The fungus grows between the cells of the leaves and causes them to divide and grow more than normal, causing the leaf to swell and distort. Red plant colors accumulate in malignant cells.
Fungal cells break down into fragments of leaves and produce elongated sac-like structures, such as ascorphos, which give the leaves a grayish-white, dusty, or velvety-like appearance. Asbestos is released into the air, taken to new tissues, and sprouts form.
Certain conditions support the fungus
During the hot summer months, the fungus survives on the surface of the tree, such as scorpions and acacia spores. In autumn, when the weather is cool and humid, asparagus grows on the tree’s surface to produce more sprouts. In spring, sprouts-condensate move from water to irrigation or rain and can infect new leaves.
When the leaves are first opened, the cold, wet weather conditions favor the disease. In laboratory cultures, the ideal temperature for fungal growth is 68 degrees. The minimum is 48 degrees and the maximum is 79 to 87 degrees. Sprouts: Conidia germination occurs at a relative humidity of 95% or more.
At temperatures below 61 degrees Fahrenheit, less than 12.5 hours of rain, dew, or irrigation is required. Severe infections occur when trees are wet for two or more days. Leaves can be infected, but if the temperature stays above 69 degrees, there may be no symptoms.
Cold weather prolongs the growth of the disease by supporting the pathogen and delaying leaf growth. Peach leaf curvature stops when young tissue grows or when the weather is dry and hot (79 degrees to 87 degrees).
Next week I will give you some solutions to this disease.
Hope you have a nice garden in your garden. I really enjoyed all the plants in the flower. I have purple flowers, hydrangea, pink nude lady, blackberry lily, rose and more.
If you have any challenges while traveling in your gardens, email ericlarson546@yahoo.com. The columns will be updated when I can place my blog on my website at ohiohealthyfoodcooperative.org. I will do my best to get you back. Thank you for participating in our column.
Eric Larson, a former landscape and gardener of Jeromesville, is a founding member of the Ohio Chapter of the Professional Landscape Designers Association. An email to ewlarson546@yahoo.com encourages your gardening request.