When i bought my property it came with a few established fruit tree’s. I have two black gold cherries and two Stanley plums that are diseased. Can you guys look at the pictures and let me know if they are worth saving or if i should remove and burn them? I might add that only one cherry produced this season and it was a single cherry. Both plum trees produced a few plums but OMF got the best of them before i could reaact. I did not take notice to any frass on the trees so im guessing it’s not a borer. Ill post more pics as soon as the site lets me!
That’s a lot of gumming. I would agree with Mamuang that it is probably canker although gumming can be caused by other things. If I were you I would think about cutting the cankers out during a dry period in the Summer.
Here is two links on canker including some advice on how to deal with it.
The knot doesn’t look so bad, it can be cut out, but the canker on the trunks is not good at all. What I do with such cankers is to cut back to clean (white and healthy, not brown and cankered) wood and then protect with something like paint. Or I just hit with a blowtorch to fry it (harder to guess the extent that way though). If you really wanted to grow fruit I would try for a year or two to see if you could knock it back, and if not just chop them down now.
In the future you will want to be careful when you prune and consider painting over the cuts right after as you can see how the canker entered old pruning wounds on those trees.
Black knot on the plums can get very bad quickly. Especially if its a cultivar thats very prone to it. Stanley Prune is the worst, speaking from experience. Almost all of my dozen varieties came down with it last year. Even the ones that were reported to have moderate resistance, like Santa Rosa , and Shiro. They are covered. My Bruce and Methley are gone from it now. I ordered new trees this spring to replace those lost . Supposedly, The President has the best resistance to Black Knot, and I think it was Early Italian, or something like that. Will know in a few years. The best solution is to replant with trees that have the best resistance, and Plum Trees grow fast, so plan on getting them in soon. Not sure what is happening yet, but my Superior and Alderman havent shown any Black Knot yet.
