I have a co-worker with a large ornamental cherry. As the resident tree person, she asked me what she should do about the discolored and twisted leaves that are covering about 1/3 of the tree. She didn’t like my suggestion to get rid of the non-productive tree and replace it with a jujube 
, so, I checked with her to see if there were any aphids or ants (farming the aphids). She checked and didn’t see any, leaving fungal/viral issues, though I have no idea which. Can anyone suggest what this looks like, as well as possible solutions?
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It looks possibly viral but I would want to see what others say.
Looks like peach leaf curl.
I agree, just the mottling doesn’t look right, would peach leaf curl also have that?
Can PLC affect cherry trees?
I don’t remember the mottling, at least on peach trees. Speaking of PLC, I planted a peach at a rental property last year and this spring it has some of the worst PLC that I’ve seen. Still, I don’t see any mottling, though some are turning brown.
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Is have looked at some info about cherry viruses because a pattern appeared on a few of my leaves, I feel like peach curl doesn’t have mottling but from for example PNRSV doesn’t really have the red on the leaves
Bob,
Admittedly, that peach tree of yours looked fairly unattractive. Time to bring out Kocide spray next year
Look like cherry does have a similar leaf curl issue cause by fungus.
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Is the mottling also a part of the curl problem
I saw the same page, but wasn’t able to find any other info online, at least in the first 10-20 links. I’d be pretty hesitant to tell her to cut 1/3+ of the tree off if it is just a matter of “it will be better next year” or “spray fungicide when dormant next year”.
Yes, it looked very nice when flowering (big showy blooms), but as soon as I got the tenants in, it started looking pretty bad. The best leaves on the tree are a few grafts (3 for 3 success) that I put on…
I don’t think so. Also, there doesn’t seem to be any white fungal growth on the bottom of the leaf, like the site mentioned, so it may not be an exact match.
I believe it’s virus possibly, not sure which, check symptoms of PNRSV if they match, especially include the mottling in your search. Mottling is a symptom of this virus but I haven’t seen the red.
I checked PNRSV and the mottling looks similar, but I don’t see any mention of leaf curl or the red leaves. And if it does turn out to be a virus, it doesn’t seem that there is much that can be done about it.
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Yeah that’s why if that is virus than my tree may have it too, but it is pretty localized on mine, you said that it’s on a third of the tree right?
