To assist your peach or nectarine tree through this season of peach leaf curl you can foliar spray the leaves with Maxi Crop or Algit to add nutrients.  This will not cure peach leaf curl, but will support the trees health.

The key to proper fertilization is a balance of nutrients.  Nitrogen & Potassium are necessary for plant growth, and especially important in a tree’s formative years when you want to establish a strong scaffold of branches to bear the many years of abundant harvests.  Phosphorous is essential for disease resistance and flower & fruit development.  A common error of many backyard gardeners is to go too heavy on nitrogen (in the form of chemical fertilizers or raw manures) and neglect Phosphorous & Potassium as well as other essential nutrients.    

Soil nutrient analysis a useful tool.  However, the roots of semi-dwarf and standard trees forage wide & deep and often tap soil that is not easily sampled for analysis.  Sometimes a nutrient is present in the soil but is not available to the tree because of soil pH or the deficiency of another nutrient.  Foliar analysis is often the only way to be certain what nutrients are present or lacking in a tree’s diet.  However, foliar analysis is not the most practical solution for a home gardener. 

As a rule of thumb you want to see 6 to 18 inches of growth per year on mature trees in the home orchard (younger trees grow more vigorously and should put on more growth).  Fruit rees require 20 lbs composted poultry manure. New trees require 1/3 this amount. 

Planting a perennial cover crop of mixed grasses, legumes and herbs is an excellent way to provide long-term fertility for your fruit & nut trees.  Once established a perennial cover crop will provide nitrogen, attract beneficial insects and cycle nutrients, all to the benefit of your orchard-garden ecosystem.  We recommend planting a mix of legumes and grasses, with some tap root plants, such as parsley, dandelion, daikon radish, beets, carrots chicory.

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