Some years ago, I built a removable shelter for the genetic dwarf peach trees, to prevent Peach Leaf Curl disease. If rain can be prevented from washing fungal spores into the buds from Nov through May, there is basically no leaf curl. If not protected, the leaf curl can severely damage or destroy the crop, and destroy the tree.
Some varieties are tolerant to or resist the disease, but most do not.
Genetic dwarf peaches can be protected and it works wonderfully. Regular peach trees grow too big to protect. There are sprays, but why do I want to spray poisons on my peaches?
The larger of my two, Garden Gold, is beginning to outgrow its shelter. Also, last year it made too many peaches, which was too much to manage and broke some branches. So I pruned it today,
This is the Garden Gold peach tree after pruning today.
Now the branches are all at least a foot from the plastic shelter top and sides.
The much smaller one is El Dorado peach. I don't know why it's smaller. I think I need to built the shelter a bit taller this year. It bloomed earlier and is done blooming. I can tell yet if it set fruit. Today, mostly I cut off dead branches, which were a lot. I also opened up the center a bit.
Last fall, I used HVAC tape to hold hold-down strings for the plastic cover. They worked until they didn't. I think most of the branches were rain-protected well enough. Here are some that were sticking out and exposed to rain.
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