PEACH LEAF CURL

1. PEACH LEAF CURL
SUBMITTED BY COURSE TEACHER
J.MAHESHKUMAR Dr. S. PARTHASARATHY
2015021073 Asst. Prof. (PLANT PATHOLOGY)

2. Peach Leaf Curl
• Causal organism: Taphrina deformans
• Distribution:
America,
Europe,
Asia,
Australia,
New zealand

3. Systemic Position
• Kingdom : Fungi
• Phylum : Ascomycota
• Class : Taphrinomycetes
• Order : Taphrinales
• Family : Taphrinaceae
• Genus : Taphrina
• Species : T. deformans

4. Symptoms
 Diseased leaves can usually be identified soon after they
emerge from the bud, due to their red color and twisted shape.
 As the leaves develop, they become increasingly distorted,
and ultimately thick and rubbery compared to normal leaves.
The colors of the leaves change from the normal green to red
and purple.
 Fruit may fail to develop from diseased blossoms, or may be
affected, showing a reddish colour.

6. Pathogen description
• Intercellular mycelium devoid of ascocarp.
• Naked asci are produced individually and bear eight
ascospores.
• Ascospores undergo budding division before released
from ascus.

7. Disease cycle
• Peach leaf curl is caused by the fungus Taphrina
deformans. This pathogen is called monocyclic,
meaning these fungal spores infect peach leaves only
once a year in the spring.
• Taphrina deformans survive winter on buds or twigs of
the tree.

9. Favourable condition
• For successful infection, the fungus requires cool
and wet winters, where rain wets the tree for
more than 12.5 hours at temperatures below 16°C
(61 °F).

10. Management
• The most effective method is to plant peach trees possibly
covered by a mat during the winter, to keep winter rain
away from the buds before they burst (incidentally to
delay blossoming until spring frosts are over)
• Spraying the leaves with fungicides is the most common
control method.

11. Copper based mixtures (such as bordeaux mixture) and lime
sulphur are two fungicides commonly used.
• Peach cultivars can be planted which show some resistance
to peach leaf curl, or at least regenerate rapidly, such as
Peach 'Benedicte'.
• No similarly resistant nectarine cultivar is yet known.

12. References:
"Peach--Leaf Curl." An Online Guide to Plant Disease
Control. 01 Jan 2008. Oregon State University. 14 Apr 2009
<http://plant-disease.ippc.orst.edu/disease.