Jangchub wrote:
On 22 Mar 2007 10:59:21 -0700, "esti" wrote:

Is it better to remove leaves from under fruit trees or leave them to
decay and serve as mulch? Trees in question are avocado, fig, orange,
plum, peach, and apricot.

My peach tree 'Dixieland' had brow rot last season. I didn't get one
edible peach, where the year before I have 15 bushels from one tree.
The practices of hygiene play a large part in fruit trees, unlike some
information I see here. I make sure the foliage is raked up, along
with the mushy peaches and I restore the mulch with a new layer of
freshly shredded wood. Well, not fresh as in newly shredded.

But that's my practice.k This year there are no bees to speak of.
It's always something.

I find that, no matter what else I do, I will still get both leaf curl
and brown rot unless I use a dormant spray on my peach tree. I use a
mixture of dormant oil and copper sulfate, spraying once right after
pruning and once again as the flower buds start to show color (just
before they open).

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at http://www.rossde.com/garden/