A Carmine Jewel cherry busy of mine has had some of its small branches die suddenly. These were ones with leaves and baby cherries on them.
The pictures below will give you an idea of what’s going on.
Does anyone know what the cause and what I should do about it to prevent further losses?
Is it planted in the ground or a pot? They need a strong root system. That can happen if roots are damaged or it is not getting sufficient water.
Had that happen before where I have some planted close to the driveway. In general I see that randomly with certain bushes. The CJ grew out of it but half of the bush died back that year. I also feel it’s got something to do with the roots but perhaps it’s voles underground or an insect but the only way to know Is to dig down and look.
I’m taking out a small nanking cherry because it’s doing that kind of thing, and the nearest I can come up with is verticillium wilt.
Mark,
I’ve seen that a lot with Nanking cherries and western sand cherries at my house. I strongly suspect prunus besseyi aka western sand cherry harbor disease at my location. I had about 75 sand cherry bushes at one time so I suppose anytime I’m growing big numbers or have big numbers of wild species that are similar to the fruits in my orchard disease pressure escalates quickly.
Clark, I have a friend who is big on foraging, which of course means harvesting uncultivated stuff- the polar opposite of modern monoculture! Humans keep running into walls of their own making, ay?
Yes we do Mark! We have a tendency to outsmart ourselves!
We’re never so smart that we can’t outsmart ourselves!
:-)M