Thursday, February 9, 2012

Now is the time for Copper!

Advancing to copper age!

Now is the right time to apply those copper sprays, and anti fungus products. But what are you talking about? you ask? Why Peach Leaf Curl is what I am talking about, of course! Peach leaf curl will make your peach tree grow cancerous looking leaves, that are bubbley , and curled. These leaves will eventually shrivel and fall off, spreading the disease and that is terrible. This will also affect the fruit production of the tree, either stopping it or severely limiting the harvest of fruit.

Peach Leaf Curl : Pic taken from  ingham.org


  However, there are preventative measures you can take to protect your fancy peach tree, and that is to apply a liquid (or powder form) Copper product. The liquid copper has something to do with disrupting the bacteria in its reproduction, meaning bacteria currently present will not die but it will not be able to reproduce.

http://www.commercecreators.com/sites/folder1358/site_images_system/user/peach_leaf_curl.jpg
The only Cons to using this copper spray is that (1) it is not 100% effective at stopping Peach Leaf Curl, so if you have the species that is resistant then your kinda outta luck and (2) You MUST reapply every time it rains, or you overhead water, otherwise the copper is washed away and will only prevent fungus in the soil.
BTW, this product will also reduce many other bacterial infections from killing your tomatoes and other veggies.

I personally would buy the concentrate version, just because it will cover a much larger amount of space, but if you have only one plant to take care of, and its not a 20 FT tall tree then the ready to use version would do just fine.


If you care to read more on how copper works as an antimicrobial agent, then check out the wiki, or the discussion board that I found(the second link)
lhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimicrobial_properties_of_copper

khttp://www.finishing.com/340/58.shtml
Another great site for learning how to care and raise your peach tree is
http://www.ingham.org/ce/hort/Video%20library/instructional_videos.htm

Ok guys! thanks for reading, and I hope you can stop that Peach Leaf curl now before it rears its ugly head!

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