Almond tree leaf curl
Guernsey Donkey2
Posts: 6,713
in Plants
In the Spring our 3 year old almond tree leaves began to show a raised up red blemish on less than a quarter of them, which I duly removed and binned. Only one almond has formed this year compared with a dozen or more last year. All was well with the tree as it grew and the rest of the leaves were good and healthy. Now however I notice that about one quarter of the leaves are starting to curl. I have looked up the RHS site but there appears to be nothing that I can do to solve the problem apart from putting a barrier up (which will look daft and does it really help?). Any ideas or experiences to share would be appreciated, thanks.
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There are fungicides that will control peach leaf curl which is w your almond tree has.
Thanks for your reply Redwing. Are there - I wasn't sure if there was a cure - apart from chopping the tree down of course. I really would rather not use a fungicides as there is always the worry that it will harm creatures or pass into the food stream. Any thoughts?
I've no direct experience but I had a tree badly affected once and was advised to either apply fungicide a few times in autumn and winter and/or rig up something to keep the rain off the tree in spring. But we moved house not long after so I never actually got round to trying either.
Clearly rigging up unsightly plastic protection is not what most people would want to do in our climate (even in Guernsey's) in order to obtain a few almonds at best, in any year. I think GD, the issues for you are a) how bad the leaf curl is and whether or not you can live with it and b) if it is really bad and making the tree look completely ugly can you compromise your morals and selectively use a fungicide?
Almonds are beautiful trees, you are unlikely to get more than a few each year, if any. It does best in southern Europe where it is hotter and not so damp and probably does not suffer the leaf curl problem. Do you want the tree for the almonds or because it is a really nice pretty tree? If the latter; and it really must be even in Guernsey, then I would say use a fungicide, just to stop it looking bad......if it is extensive. I'm going in circles here; I hope you the gist.
Yes, I follow what you are saying Redwing and thanks for sharing your thoughts on our almond tree. The tree has produced no more than 20 almonds in the past couple of years, but then we have only had it 2 1/2 years. Just one almond this year. Yes, it is a pretty tree, and I wonder what would happen next year if we just ignored the problem - I am assuming that first the red blotchy leaves and then the leaf curl will return with vengeance next year. The tree was a present, but I think it cost around £30.00, so not a cheap present by any means. We will have a discussion about this at the w/end, and look into fungicide remedies if necessary.