The leaves on one of the three main branches of my Royal Rainier cherry are curling and turning brown, and they fall off the tree with a very light touch. Any idea what is causing this or what, if anything, I can do? The tree was planted bare root this winter. I have not been over watering, and the tree has good drainage. I’m in zone 9a.
@edmark, can you post a pic of the tree itself, may be easier to diagnose, thanks! Royal Rainer is a really good cherry, hope you get some fruit!
The tree I mentioned lost most of its leaves, but now has new branches appearing with nice healthy leaves. The neighboring tree also now has browning leaves (see photo). Can anyone tell me what is going on here, and what, if anything I can do about it?
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@edmark, sorry I missed this earlier, looks like it may have got too dry at one point or possibly fertilizer burn. It looks pretty good now, I might give it a good soaking and keep an eye on it. Also could be a rodent chewing on your roots, we get a lot of that here but the leaves curl more and turn more yellow color. Your leaves look nice and green. Here is one of my cherries getting hit by rodents and one right next to it that’s healthy.
@fruitgrower thanks for the suggestions. I thought I’ve been pretty good about watering it well once-a-week, and I didn’t notice any wilting of the leaves before the browning occurred (I assume that thirsty cherry trees leaves wilt, but perhaps they don’t.) I’ve never fertilized it, but I suppose it’s possible that the soil I used to fill the raised bed was too rich for a bare root tree (though I didn’t use any special soil, just some from the garden). In any case, as you say, it seems fine now. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that it stays that way.
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