Saturday Morning With Jack Tame

Preventing Leafcurl on stonefruit It’s extraordinary how many people ring our talk-back programme in spring and summer to raise the problem of leafcurl on stone fruit. And the answer will always be: “You’re too late!” Taphrina deformans is the fungus that causes this leafcurl. The disease becomes active at bud-break: when the leaves and flowers come out of the buds in spring. The spores of Taphrina deformans are already settled on those buds, making infection quite easy. Once the leaves are infected in spring, they become distorted and discoloured (pretty yellow and orange colouration); when infestations are serious the number of leaves that drop off can be substantial, causing a reduction in photosynthesis and hence the ability of the tree to “feed itself”. In spring, with young, infected leaves (which are soft and delicate) there is no point in spraying with copper fungicides as that will burn those leaves quite badly. Best thing to do is to remove and get rid of infected leaves as much as you can – especia