Advice needed on what to do with bush cherry with crown gall (?)

General Fruit Growing
#1

Disclaimer: I’m new to growing fruit, so possibly this is a simple question with a simple answer, but I’ve looked over the forum posts that I could find and still not quite decided what to do.
I purchased a container grown Romeo cherry from a local nursery last year, so it’s been in the ground for about 15 months now. I didn’t notice anything suspicious then, but also, I probably wouldn’t have known what I was looking at either then. Still not quite sure now. But a couple days ago I was just checking on the plants in the front yard, and I found what I think is a crown gall. I was actually looking at the base of the cherry, because as I started learning more about trees, I realized that I planted some others (plum) too deep - they were container grown too. I don’t think the cherry is too deep, but scratching around I exposed a root with a trufflish looking growth on it (as in shape). It’s hard, seems dry and a bit like cork. Looking closer there is also growth at the base of the tree. Looking at pictures on the web, and here, cherries’ reputation (I think someone even singled out Romeo here), I think it is crown gall.
The tree itself is still small - it didn’t put up a lot of growth this year, but looked healthy otherwise and bloomed nicely and even set 5 fruit or so. I wasn’t surprised by lack of growth - I’m in the intermountain west region, our summers are hot and dry. I don’t have experience with trees and such yet, but I have some with perennials and roses, and they often take the first year just settling in and not growing much or at all, and then take off in next year or so.
Now, I wonder:

  • did the tree come with the infection?
  • or did it get from the soil here? (new house, no clue about what could be in the soil, I think there used to be old fruit trees in the backyard - the house itself is old, so it’s likely. Everything was razed before I bought the place)
  • most importantly, what to do?
    From what I gathered, there is really no cure/treatment - at least available for residential customers (non-commercial). The thing can and will spread into the soil. A lot of fruit trees and roses are susceptible.
    I’m worried about my roses nearby, but on the other hand the bush cherry sort of fits perfectly for what I wanted in that spot (i.e. something that will provide interest, potential fruit benefit, grow relatively fast but won’t grow too big at the end), and if I pull the tree out, I shouldn’t really plant anything else in that spot… :worried:
    But if it picked the bacterium from the soil - it’s already there, and ripping the plant out doesn’t accomplish anything?
    If it came with the tree, then also it’s been in that spot for over a year, so it’s not the case of “oops I just planted it and now this”, so I’m not sure if pulling it out now will help.
    I’m tempted to maybe cut out the galls (when the weather a little drier, I imagine, but maybe before the tree wakes up for spring?) and see how the tree does this season?

I’d really appreciate any advice - I’m torn. I got a bit attached to that little thing (and even more to the idea of bush cherries - I love tart cherries, grew up with them, and was completely stunned by finding out they are mostly unavailable in the US outside of the weird canned pie filling). I was so excited when I saw it at the nursery - I had been itching to get my hands on a bush cherry :cry:

PS. Reading this forum is a quick education in a) all the alluring things about growing your own fruit, b) all the things that can go wrong. A bit like falling down the WebMD rabbit hole, but for trees and shrubs :wink:

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#2

Agrobacterium
Crown Gall
is systemic.
Remove the tree and destroy it.
It can eventually infect the neighbors.
No spray will eliminate it.

#3

I’d take a few pictures and contact my county extension and ask for their diagnosis and recommendation.

I found this regarding cherry crown gall in an abstract from the British Society for Plant Pathology.

The final line reads:
“The data support the view that there is no consistent effect of crown gall on cherry tree growth and that the adverse appearance of affected nursery material is the main problem with this disease.”

Whether this pertains to the bush cherry that you have, I don’t know and would investigate further with my county extension.

You may find this thread interesting of a blackberry gall I found on one of my plants last winter. Initially I though I would have to remove the plant, but it was eventually determined that the diagnosis was wrong and the plant could remain.

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#4

Thank you, I haven’t thought to contact the extension. But this is a good idea, also they would probably know how prevalent it is in our area. Your blackberry case is also really curious, and I’m impressed with how your extension followed up on it to identify the insect. I think once we get a bit more sun after this latest storm and things dry out, I’ll take pictures and prune out the root with one of the growths. Cutting through it and including a picture of cross-section may help as well.
And I’ve seen some similar reports of it being hard to predict how much and if any the tree would be affected. That’s one of the reasons - since it isn’t a commercial setting - why I’m having second thoughts about an immediate scorched earth approach. It’s interesting to see a study done on cherries in particular.

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#5

Yes, I agree that the scorched earth approach might be a bit premature in a backyard setting. It’s winter now, so I’d take my time and get a more definitive diagnosis before doing anything that you might regret later. Perhaps others with more knowledge on the subject will chime in here.

I too have a Romeo (and a Juliet) cherry and am interested in what you find.

#6

Some trees/rootstocks are more susceptible to crown gall than others. Most of my plum trees on Citation rootstock died from crown gall after several years of slow decline, while plum trees on Myro rootstock that replaced them do just fine at the same spots.

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