How to Diagnose and Prevent Phony Peach Disease | Gardener's Path

What could be wrong with an attractive, compact, bushy peach tree? Plenty! Your tree could have the incurable bacterial phony peach disease (PPD).

This disease came seemingly out of nowhere and first struck peach trees in Georgia in 1900. And it had spread all the way to Texas by 1933.

A century later, this pathogen is still a pernicious problem.

No peach tree is safe – every cultivar, form, and hybrid is susceptible.

Your tree won’t die of this affliction, but it will stop producing fruit over a two- to four-year period.

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The cause of PPD is a type of bacteria known as Xylella fastidiosa subsp. multiplex. It is closely related to the pathogen that causes the dreaded Pierce’s disease, which has effectively limited the types of grapes that can be grown in the southeast.

Other strains of this species of bacteria can also cause leaf scorch in elm, maple, oak and sycamore trees, or citrus variegated chlorosis in citrus trees.

These bacteria live in the plant’s xylem – the tubes that transport water and nutrients from the roots to the leaves.

And they would stay there if it weren’t for aggressive leafhoppers known as sharpshooters or spittlebugs that suck out the liquid, and become infected in the process.

Unfortunately, these leafhoppers can live on a number of different types of weeds as well as trees, so they are probably residing in close proximity to your peach tree, though this is not typically their number one choice of host.

What can be done at this point? Not much. If your tree is infected, you should remove and destroy it.

However,