Having an orchard as a child prompted me to continue with an orchard of my own. Earlier this year I bought an Elberta peach and promptly planted it. The leaves came out pale and stunted with eventually red discoloration. Sound familiar? Well it sounded like the common disease as the symptoms fit. I tried to find a cure for the moment without waiting until the fall to use standard fungicides. I couldn't stand to see a plant that should be
growing be on the verge of dieing. I used a dilute solution of chlorox in water. 2 oz. of the grocery store bleach (5%) in 32 oz. of water. I used a standard sprayer and stood with my back to the wind. Application was every two days for two weeks. The concentration should be 0.16%. Now more than a month later the diseased leaves have recovered somewhat and the tree has put out large healthy dark green leaves. The products of the reaction between the fungus and the solution is an extremely tiny volume of chlorine gas, far less than is found in the average pool. The other byproduct is salt, again in very low concentration (0.16%). After reading on the internet I could find no reference to the use of bleach as a fungicide for plant diseases. I could not find a cure for peach leaf curl except during dormancy. Dead wood should be a place that could harbor a fungus but the solution took care of that too. The action on the fungus should be instant. No soak time required except to penetrate dead branch ends. A dry day would help the solution absorb into the external bark. One gallon of bleach should make 64 gallons of solution. I would like to hear from others with experience on this subject.
