Something bad with my cherry trees

Quincy56

They develop these yellow spots and then also black spots on the leves shortly after the blossoms fall off in the late spring.

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Quincy56

Missed the opening for the second picture

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Quincy56

Try three....

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Quincy56

Or four....

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Bob Tooley

Has this been an ongoing yearly problem, or has it just started showing up ?
In New England we've been getting a few 'out-of-state' fungus' which have come in on the winds from southwestern regions and have hit a number of 'stone crop' trees, which include the cherries. There is also a generalized 'stone crop fungus' you might want to check out with your Extension Service, which occurs from the pollen of the blossom landing on the foliage during damp weather, etc.,... I've never seen these 'imports' and tree-specific fungus' cause any long term effect on the trees, or their fruit production, but you may want to double check things just to be on the safe side.

Quincy56

It has been happening for several years now. Not sure if it is getting worse or not.

Bob Tooley

Most of the fungus' we get in the northeast are separated into warm and cold weather-types. Our recent cooler springs have allowed a number of the cold weather types to multiply into larger more visible colonies on the leaves so they appear to be getting worse rather then being an increased size of something we've had going on for years. On the yellowing spots, you should find a darker green ring around the outside edge... generally that's a sort of 'boundary' and the spot doesn't grow beyond it. The darker..turning toward black..fungus is a totally different fungus species... A rule with fungus' is when the leaf section dies and turns brown, the fungus' is also dead... but you might want to clean up any fallen leaves in the fall and remove them from the tree area, as well as applying a horticultural dormant oil spray in the late fall to smother any fungus spores wintering over on the twigs, etc., Leaves also have a 'cuticle layer' which is a waxy coating which is provided to reduce sun burn, water-loss and to act as a barrier between fungus spores and the actual leaf surface. Our acid rains have helped 'burn' off this coating, exposing the leaf surface to a direct spore contact. Feeding a tree to increase it's health can build a thicker cuticle layer to where rains can wash the spores off before they have an ability to 'root' into the leaf itself.

Bob Tooley

Additionally, if you mix chlorox and water 12:1 (1-chlorox) and apply it as a leaf spray it should decrease, and sometimes kill off, most foliage fungus'...

Now I have a question for you... How do you get to post your pictures directly into your post box...all I ever get is a click to view line outside the box... I'm new here to, so we can learn from each other...

Quincy56

You need some place on the web where you can upload your picture first, and be able to access it with a URL. Once you have the URL that will open your picture, simply click the icon that looks like a mountain with a sun and yellow sky and paste the URL for your picture there.

Thanks for the advise on my trees.

John

Quincy56

Some new symptoms. Interesting growth on the leaves. And also this critter in one of the branches...

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Bob Tooley

The first picture is the 'fruiting body'..."flower" so to speak, of the fungus colonies on the leaf...the original fungus problem. These 'flowers' are the way the fungus gets it's spores into the air for distribution.
The second is a 'twig borer'...using the ant in the picture for scale, the borer size is common though I don't keep a catalog of insect species in my head, as well as seeing no reason to post specific species 'names' when they 'all' act and function the same. Unless you have visual damage being caused by the borer and this is not the only one in the tree(s)... I wouldn't be too concerned with either it, or the fungus issues..... As with most tree problems, you can expect there will be a few new problems each year...some new, and some repeats of previous years or problems...but the idea is to define the degree of tree involvement and call 10% damage an acceptable compromise level.