I have a weird situation with my cherry trees I got this year. Both my rainier cherries are thriving and the Utah Giant in the front is thriving. Right by the two rainier cherries there is another Utah Giant and Bing cherry tree. Some of the leaf buds almost look like they are popped and the remaining leaves have little to no growth and the existing growth is turning black. It has been mostly in the 60s and 70s but a lot of rain with it raining literally almost every day. Any idea what could be causing this?
It could be blossom blast / brown rot.
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Where are you located? Could you please post some pics.
Usually, blossom blast do not affect leaves.
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I am not sure where in CO you live but the varieties you chose do not seem to suit CO or zone 5. Sweet cherries are difficult to grow esp. cold zone like zone 5 or lower.
My guess is canker is what caused your cherry leaves to wilt and died.
This is from CO state u.
1202 - Cherries - PlantTalk Colorado.
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I hate to say it, but it looks dead to me.
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I live in Jeffco county Colorado. I guess is is more towards the front range towards Kansas. Like I mentioned it is weird because the sweet cherries of rainier in the back and the Utah Giant in the front did wonderful. I can either replace them next winter with more sweet cherries or I was thinking of getting peaches. They mentioned some sweet cherries on the webpage you gave. Should I replace them with those?
Yeah I wondered about that. There is some green but if they don’t start growing I can replace them. Is there any sweet cherry varieties you recommend for zone 5.
When you said your two Rainiers and one Utah Giant did wonderful meaning they leaf out and grow?
This is your first year planting these 4-5 cherry trees, right?
Most people love sweet cherries. It is one of the top favorite fruit of many. Unfortunately, it only grows well in specific areas like Michigan. and Washington State. That does not discourage the whole country from attempting to grow sweet cherries.
Will you be ready to deal with diseases like leaf spot, canker, blossom blight, brown rot and pests such cherry flies, plum curculio, birds, etc. Oh, don’t forget Mother. Nature. Rain at the wrong time could make all your cherries crack.
Will you spray? If not, you are likely to get blossom blight and brown rot in 3-4 years.
I speak from personal experience. Not that I am bitter or anything 
Yup both my 2 rainier and the 1 Utah Giant in the front have fully leafed out and are growing stems. Those 3 plants are thriving. I just bought them this year and got them last December. I am already spraying them with dormant oil.
I am aware you are new to fruit growing. It will be a challenge growing stone fruit like sweet cherries, peaches and nectarines.
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Not a new gardener per say but new to fruit trees. I grew plenty of veggies from seed as a kid and continued as a adult. These cherry trees are my first fruit trees though. If my trees do in fact have bacterial canker does that spread through the soil? I am wondering if I will have to replace the soil. I was doing research while we talked and found a cherry variety called White Gold. It sounds like they are crack and bacterial canker resistant and are self fertile.
Penn state extension service has a lot of good info for backyard fruit growers. You should read up on university extension services about diseases and pests of fruit trees you want to grow so you are prepared. Cherry Disease - Bacterial Canker
Knowing how to grow veggies is quite different from growing fruit trees. IMO, growing fruit trees is far more challenging.
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I can save you years of grief, cut down those cherry trees. Colorado is not eastern Wa! Where I live in western Wa, it’s also impossible to get a backyard cherry, too much natural competition between the fruit flies, the crows and the squirrels. Took me 20 years to give them up but I learned.
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I have to respecfully disagree with the above, in the west its more about whether the birds and or bugs get them. My two bings produce most years (fail to when spring is to rainy and cold) humming birds and native ground bees are my pollinators. I get around 40in of rain per year but they do grow well in my area…canker is relatively slow killing in my area…brown rot is a bit of a concern…peach blossoms seem to freeze a lot more and apricots seem to be more sickly and die…also have western cherry fly(which is why i appreciate the odd cherry free year to knock the population down…have about 2weeks from when you see them until the cherries have maggots
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