help! Red bulge on my peach tree leaves .

stephen gibson

hi i need help a weird red bulge has come out on my peach tree leaves does any body know what it is? heres a pic

Lius · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 8:49 pm Post subject:

Have you been eating bread and jam in the garden ?

walltoall · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 9:03 pm Post subject: help!

Don't pay any attention to Lius, Stephan. He's just full of he's fun tonight. Stick a worm in his open gob and maybe he'll start chewing the cud.

That carbuncle is caused by a blister aphid. I'm declaring war on ALL aphids starting this winter. In December I'm going to comprehensively spray my victoria plum with bluestone. And at bud burst I'm going systemic on it. I've had leaf curl now for four years by being nice to the bxtxrrds but from now on they are going to get done. Big time. Bloody ladybirds are not out early enough and there's not enough of them to deal with whitefly, greefly, blackfly anyway.

use a systemic insecticide on the underside of the leaves as soon as you see the first signs of such blistering to to hell with the organic thought-police.

Blowin · Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 5:23 am Post subject:

Not wishing to confront the Essex Regiment, and this will depend on the size of your tree, you may not be happy with the toxic effect of Bluestone.

I didn't know your problem was an aphid but most of them can be blitzed by simply spraying with the strained off liquid from boiled rhubarb leaves. There are plenty about at the moment. Simply collect the leaves - the size of your problem will give you an idea how many - boil them up and allow to cool. Strain off the liquid.

If you haven't got a purpose made spray, any household spray gun of the type found in most kitchens wil do. Wash out its former contents. Refill with rhubarb liquid and spray away. I've always got a couple of these in the shed, saved from the recycling bin, as they're also useful for giving runner bean flowers a spray with water to help them set etc.

walltoall · Last edited by walltoall on Sun Jul 03, 2011 8:25 pm; edited 1 time in total

Blowin

The Essex Regiment is on furlough and I'm holding the fort, so you're grand. Rhubarb is close to my heart, as long as I'm not listening to it. So let's flow with your idea. I think you're telling me that the drainings of stewed rhubarb leaves will kill off aphids and you reckon it will even deal with the ones that have caused leaf curl on my plum every year now for five years?

There's a couple of shots of the plum. You can't actually see the plums dropping. For that I need video. But history is made. WallToAll appears to be behind this travesty and for the first time ever appears in person on IrishGardener.com. Oh! The shame and mortification of it.

I'll take it that the potion will have a bad effect of the blackfly currently being milked for all they are worth by my black ants as they attempt to devastate my french beans? I'm going to have some rhubarb stalks ready to pull shortly and I'm going to run with your plan. I have all the spray cans I need etc. etc. and the photos show my Rhubarb.

If the potion kills the blackfly, it'll do for the plum wans as well and I'll be on to a winner? All the high numbers good buddy. Let the trial begin.

kindredspirit · Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 5:56 pm Post subject:

There's another reply on this thread http://www.gardenplansireland.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=25951&highlight=#25951 and "someone" says there's no need to nuke the place. Those galls don't cause any harm. (or so I was told.)

kindredspirit · Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 5:58 pm Post subject:

Quote.
You wanted to know how big the plum tree is. Well I'm 6foot and the tree is about 6yrs old. Well stunted by five years of ravishment

You or the tree? Laughing

walltoall · Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 6:11 pm Post subject:

if you only knew the half of it Kindred. BOTH of us actually but I was got by an incompetent surgeon. I'm over it and now I want my tree to share my happiness and health.

michael brenock · Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 9:12 am Post subject:

peach leaves can also be afected by peach leaf curl a fungus that causes swelling and fleshiness of leaves, not unlike the galls. The galls however occur singly in well defined areas.
michael brenock horticultural advisor (retired)

James Kilkelly · Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 12:22 pm Post subject:

Michael, good to have you back.
We missed you.

michael brenock horticultural advisor (retired.......... not yet )

tunnelsofhens10 · Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 3:56 pm Post subject:

Thanks folks for lifting the oul spirits, Was having a sh--- day, great bit a banter. thanks Blowin for that advice on rhubarb leaves, could"nt understand what function they had on earth. have a load of reddish galls? on white current bush, cut it to the ground last year, made no difference, might end its pathetic life this year, crap for berries. is there any danger it will spread to my blackcurrent bush which gives me loads of fruit?

Blowin · Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 5:47 am Post subject:

I can't recall where I got this tip about rhubarb leaves but I've witnessed blackfly falling off my broad beans after treatment and am working on the principle that an aphid is an aphid is an aphid.

Hope I'm not wrong after all that.

Sive · Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 8:17 am Post subject:

Hi Blowin....I was curious about the rhubarb leaf spray and tried a little research and found this:

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Rhubarb-Garden-Spray

A little alarming that you may be killing the bees with this spray too ...the very bees that are pollinating your beans. Also it seems you shouldn't eat anything in the spray zone for 48 hours after treatment.

Just a couple of warning notes there.

walltoall · Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 4:12 pm Post subject: Rhubarb aphids and acid baths

If you've ever tasted sorrel you have consumed oxalic acid (H2C2O4) but at a very low concentration. And very nice sorrel is in a salad. Oxalic acid is fairly common in nature and is present at high levels in rhubarb leaves. This is the main reason you are warned not to try to eat rhubarb leaves or cook them. There are other nasty toxins in rhubarb about which more shortly.

But first, the tartness of rhubarb sticks is caused not by oxalic acid so much as by the more benigh malic acid, a "carboxylic di-acid" used commonly to provide tartness in apple pies, stewed rhubarb and sorbets. Malic Acid also provides the dryness to wine and the sourness to Bramleys.

Rhubarb leaves not only contain potentially dangerous levels of oxalic acid but also contain other toxins not all of which have been fully identified. Boiling up rhubarb leaves produces a toxic decoction lethal to insects such as aphids but not so much to plant life, which is one of the reasons the porganic brigade fails to see the danger. They reckon that the decoction of rhubarb leaves MUST be organic and SAFE. It ain't necessarily so.

Bluestone is a naturally occurring salt of copper, which was found to have useful fungicidal and insecticidal properties in the mid 19th century. Spraying it onto fruit trees in winter was found to lower the incidence of fungal and insect damage and increase the yield in vulnerable orchards by massive amounts. Similar results were posted in French vineyards. When the blight hit potatoes in the mid 19th century, it was realised that the benefits of spraying not only reduced potato loss but actually saved whole crops which would otherwise be devastated. The porganic brigade though think bluestone is an unnatural chemical concocted by mad scientists from Monsanto to do us all in. it ain't necessarily so.

Rhubarb leaf decoction is fine for a quick spray of say a runner bean or a flat leaf parsley which is covered with blackfly. it will kill the bxastrds dead, like NOW. What it will not do is deal with a two-pronged attack of fungus and aphid which is devastating my plum. For that and to avoid systemic chemicals I use bluestone.

michael brenock · Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 10:11 pm Post subject:

hi tunnelsofens your red currants were probably affected by red blister aphid. By cutting back the bushes you prevented them fruiting this year> Next year you should have a good crop if you protect them from the birds. The red blisters do very little damage. Red currants produce best fruit on older wood.
michael brenock horticultural advisor (retired)