The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Fruit => Topic started by: Lesley Silvester on May 27, 2015, 09:10:47 pm
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I've heard of peach lead curl but can plums get it. Last year a lot of the leaves on my Victoria plum were curled and it's happened again this year. There was a mass of blossom for the first time this spring so I don't want to lose the fruit but I don't use chemicals.
Any ideas?
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Silver leaf?
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No I don't think so. I'll take a photo or two to add.
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My red and white currants are curling too, can't see any obvious cause either :-/
Dans
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Hi Leslie :wave:
Could be aphids, see the link below...
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=681 (https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=681)
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Hi Angela. No it's not that. There's no sign of aphids and the leaves are distinctly curled as if they had started to open then stopped.
Dans, I wonder if it's the same thing.
I'll get outside with my camera tomorrow.
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Well I was about to say that nope definitely not aphids as I checked the leaves very carefully a week or so ago.
More the fool me as looking at them today after I posted and there's a ton of aphids! :-[ No idea where they were hiding when I last looked. I even rubbed the leaf last time to make sure there was nothing there.
Distinct lack of ladybirds up here so no idea what to do to combat these aphids, might have to turn to the spray.
Hope you have better luck with yours MGM!
Dans
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I spray mine with a teaspoon of washing up liquid to 5ltr water seems to kill off the green/black fly
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No aphids on the leaves. I meant to go back out to photograph them but we've been getting ready to take two goats for slaughter tomorrow and now it's too dark.
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And now every single plum has dropped off. :rant:
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Just noticed today we have exactly the same thing on our plum trees. We were wondering if it was cold wind damage to the young soft leaves, from a week or so back. it looks as if there is new leaf growth at the tips, which is what has happened in some years previously after there's been some vicious wind. When the leaves shrivel then the tree can't support fruit.
I think maybe the aphids move in after the initial damage has happened, and hide under the crinkled leaves, reproducing horribly quickly.
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Possibly but the leaves were like it last year as well but no fruit had formed as it is still a young tree. Think I'll send a photo to Garden Organic for advice.
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I spray mine with a teaspoon of washing up liquid to 5ltr water seems to kill off the green/black fly
Doesn't kill them :'( - reduces the surface tension on the leaves and they can't hold on, they fall to the ground and die there (or take a helluva long time to climb back up with wet wings :roflanim:)
I pinched off all the curled tips. My red/white currants have it and a couple of apple trees, so far my plum is OK, and my blackcurrants. Rasps and goosies are Ok too
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I spray mine with a teaspoon of washing up liquid to 5ltr water seems to kill off the green/black fly
Doesn't kill them :'( - reduces the surface tension on the leaves and they can't hold on, they fall to the ground and die there (or take a helluva long time to climb back up with wet wings :roflanim:)
I pinched off all the curled tips. My red/white currants have it and a couple of apple trees, so far my plum is OK, and my blackcurrants. Rasps and goosies are Ok too
it does kill the green fly as after spraying they are all dead stuck to the leaves
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I spray mine with a teaspoon of washing up liquid to 5ltr water seems to kill off the green/black fly
Doesn't kill them :'( - reduces the surface tension on the leaves and they can't hold on, they fall to the ground and die there (or take a helluva long time to climb back up with wet wings :roflanim:)
I pinched off all the curled tips. My red/white currants have it and a couple of apple trees, so far my plum is OK, and my blackcurrants. Rasps and goosies are Ok too
it does kill the green fly as after spraying they are all dead stuck to the leaves
I thought it was the surface tension of the pores on the aphids which was reduced, so they can't respirate? I agree, it does kill them, or at least soapy water does, as long as you soak them thoroughly.
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Just got my August copy of Kitchen Garden magazine. On page 68, in an article called 'Anne's top ten feared crop diseases', is a pic of exactly how my plum leaves look. This is apparently 'blossom wilt'. What they say is: Shortly after flowering, apples, pears, plums and other fruit trees show dead stem tips often with withered, brown blossom and dead leaves at the ends. Prune off infected shoot tips and as one of the fungi responsible also causes brown rot, collect and dispose of rotten and mummified fruits.
So I'll be pruning off those tips tomorrow, burning them then sterilising the secateurs.
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Guess I did right for once :eyelashes: