I’ve noticed that my Royal Crimson that I planted this spring is leaking sap in an alarming rate in many different places. The pictures are a bit old and the “cysts” are much larger now. It’s hard to tell whether external damage caused this as the sap is blocking the view. Since I’m ordering bare root trees for the spring right now, I figured maybe I need to replace this one. I really want an established Royal Crimson so it would be a blow to have to reboot again, but if this is a death sentence down the road, I’d rather do it now since it’s a new tree. It’s on Mazzard, though the rootstock does not seem to be affected.
The gumming can be caused by physical damage but I think in this case it is probably caused by bacterial canker. You can cut out the cankers and I think that is what you want to try doing initially. Long term you may want to look at planting cherries that have some resistance to the disease if it turns out to be common in your area. If you’re ordering a tree now I would choose one with resistance to canker.
Another thread talks about canker in detail. Look at the link to the post here:
I would look at that post then read the links in the post then finally review the other posts in the thread. That should give you a good foundation on how to deal with the issue and what would be the best course of action for you personally.
Granted, this is the only tree of this variety, but I have 4 other cherry trees in the same yard and none are showing any of these symptoms. I’ll go through all the resources you linked to and make a game plan.
I carved it all off. I should have done so long time ago as this “rot” was very deep in places. Hopefully the wounds heal up and cankers stay away from now on, though I doubt it. Turns out this tree is on Mazzard, and is the only tree in the orchard that is on this rootstock and subsequently the only one with cankers.
I ordered Royal Crimson on Maxma 14, something all my other cherries are on, so I hope I can finally enjoy this variety in a few years.
Should I let the existing tree be and see what happens? Should I plant the new tree in the same spot (probably not advisable). I’d hate to abandon this particular spot as it’s been tended to for 2 years and the soil fauna is great. I guess I can plant a different stone fruit in its place if need be.
I would keep the tree for a year and see what happens. I don’t think the primary problem is the rootstock. Mazzard and krymsk 5 are two of the better rootstocks when it comes to canker. Maxma 14 itself is a mazzard x mahaleb cross so it is actually similar to mazzard except smaller in size. It’s possible Royal Crimson is susceptible to canker but I haven’t seen any information on that. But Royal Crimson was introduced in 2016 so I doubt there much information available at this point on the weaknesses of Royal Crimson (if any).
