I have been meaning to post these. Not sure what these Bark Issues are symptoms of. The trees appear to be otherwise healthy, we at least until they went dormant. Now they look bare and sad. Lol.
Any help would be great.
Apple - Honeycrisp:
Pear - Moonglow:
Cherry - Rainier:
The limb stubs on the Moonglow should be flush cut more, at least to the taper of the collar. As it is they will never heal / close over. Looking closely you can see some dieback, some grey discoloration indicating the cambium has died at the end of the larger stub - bark is peeling back revealing a bleached grey appearance, how one can determine it will not heal if left on its own. The smaller stub appears to have some peel back too, is too long, needs to be flush cut to the collar like the larger stub.
Remove just to the point where the stubs begins to markedly taper. Removing more material than that will only significantly increase the diameter of the wound.
I strongly recommend not to use an anvil-type lopper but a true shearing device - either that or a hand saw with fine teeth, one thatâs adequately sharp so it doesnât tear the bark.
The fissures in the bark might be unsightly, not sure the cause unless itâs southeast disease, but it doesnât look like itâs a problem for the tree, at least at this stage. From the photo it looks like the fissure grooves contain bark, are not exposing dead cambium or heart wood.
The canker-like fissures on the cherry are bad news, will not heal and sooner or later will compromise the lifespan of the tree if another problem issue doesnât supersede.
You can see the heart wood, cambium tissue is dead surrounding the injury. The tree has already begun to lay down surrounding bark. The troubled areas will only expand as the tree grows, leaving an open pathway to insects, disease, and/or eventually larger critters to burrow into the tree. Am sorry, wish I had better news for outlook of the cherry. The Moonglow stub can be fixed though if you use proper pruning tools and method.
Please do not apologize for helping me learn and understand what I am.looking at. 
The Cherry I had a feeling it might be bad, had an accident with it however it never âbledâ out or showed and other issues. I can cut below that location by nearly 12" or so, that could Possibly save the bottom portion correct?
Should I assume that you are referring to the stubs on the Apple as well? Those seem to have the same Grey-ish markings. Better idea⌠Silly me. I will go look all the trees over for the cuttings that need some âpolishingâ.
I truly appreciate your guidance and time helping me get a better understanding of my trees. Sometimes the pictures I see online donât seem to match so I skip over thinking it does not apply.
-Jim
Sorry, I did not see the apple caption. I thought that was the pear, the one with the two stubs showing. I see now that the pear only has one stub showing. It isnât much of a stub on the pear and difficult to be certain from photo angle but it looks like the stub isnât healing smoothly, looks like some bark is flaking around the wound area. Especially underneath. Maybe when it was pruned, the weight of the limb slightly tore the bark underneath the cut. Do you have some good loppers? The kind that are more like scissors, have two sharp edges that bypass one another? The anvil types are not very good for trees and shrubs. The anvil smashes the bark from the pressure of squeezing the loppers closed. I think itâs worth paying the extra to get a decent pair of loppers, try to keep them out of the dirt and they stay sharp for a long time.
How big is the diameter of the cherry where you plan on heading it back? Not sure if it would heal or not. If youâre going to try that, select a spot that has a decent limb above it. I would guess that if the main stem where you head it back is much larger than an inch or so in diameter, it probably wonât heal over.
A general rule of thumb, at least when pruning branches, is when youâre selecting a place to head back, leave a limb thatâs at least 1/3 the diameter of the remaining stem, the one it leads into. This rule can be bent a little bit for faster growing shrubs and trees and it helps if youâre in a longer growing season region but the 1/3 rule is a pretty good one. If the limb ratio is too small, it wonât support the limb it leads into, and the whole thing will die back.
I have never had much luck heading back a main stem, like a tree trunk. Not unless itâs small, and less than 3 years of age. How old is the cherry and approx how big around is the stem where you want to make your cut?
So yeah, I initially made the cuts with Fiskers pruners that should have been sharper. They bypass but lacked the sharp edge. I recently bought ARS bypass pruners which make much nicer cuts, and did so when I cleaned up those stubs per your recommendation.
The trunk is maybe 3/4 near the base, max 7/8 by the graft. Here are two more pics of the Cherry to reference.
I bought some Fiskars loppers too. Theyâre a bypass type but are kinda flimsy, was disappointed in the quality. ARS are good ones, they should last you many years of good pruning.
If it was my tree, I would remove the two short limbs right above the graft union. And to get rid of the canker, would make a cut just above the bud (approx the 10.5 in mark.) Thereâs a good chance it can take over, assume the role as the central leader. Otherwise you might get several years or more with some luck before the canker type areas become a fatal problem. Do you know what kind of rootstock the Rainer is on? Do you have a pollenizer for it?
Originally, I was keeping the bottom two limbs only because I was training the tree in the SSA method. Having found the issues, I was thinking those limbs once leafed out, could help provide a source of food if I need to cut it really low and give up the existing branches which could leave the tree without leaves. I have to risk the tree not pushing new buds.
The root-stock is is a Zaiger NewRoot-1, as is my Lapins, not seen here, which will also serve as a pollenizer.
I know on treeâs experiencing fireblight they tell us to cut back 12" beyond the issue in an effort to eliminate and possible spreading. Is cutting the trunk 1.5" below those locations enough or would I cut further if I see the internal wood is infected?
As you know, the whole reason I posted this is because of my limited real world experience. Despite all the reading and researching, some things have to been seen to truly understand, which leads to my next question⌠These issues never showed any sap, or gumming or any other type of âBleedingâ. Any idea why? I want to make sure I do not miss this type of situation in the future.
-Jim
Is this buck rub? Do you get deer in your yard?
Its very confusing, I would cut the trees back hard under the damage since they are so young anyways. Still it would be great to find out what is causing this. If its not buck rub could it be any other animal? The apple looks like some sort of infection but i am not sure.
Not deer, not but I suppose it could be something else, I am not sure what though. 
I would cut them around 18" tall (from ground) spray them with a beneficial bacteria or a fungicide/bactericide and start over fresh and put your branches where you want them with scoring etc⌠Clean your tools between cuts and all that good stuff.
Wouldnât cutting them at 18" leave the canker looking issue in place?
Well definitely a good amount under the canker, Maybe its just me but it seems you are starting to measure like 6-12"+ off the ground and those look 3-4â tall is my assumption. I would try to cut like 1 ft under the canker - bark issues and i would spray something to protect them first (to stop the spread) and after (to protect the tree). I was always told for BYO keeping small trees I needed to cut them very short anyways at first to get branches where i wanted them in the following years and i wish i had went shorter for branching on all but a few trees. You will probably have to rub off any rootstock shoots this first summer, and you can do kelp sprays and notching to encourage more branching.
So Iâll cut them, at about the 3.5"-4" mark. Thatâs only 7+" below but I think keeping those really low.branches will help it recover a new leader. I checked the cambium layers a couple inches down and everything looks clean so making the cut down a few more to the 3.5" mark should do it.
Iâm thinking a spray of powdered milk, Compost Tea, Beneficial Microbes and Seaweed\Kelp should help it fight off bad stuff while it heals
Itâs expected to stay dry here for another 4-5 days so Iâll make the cut. I read somewhere that after 48-72 hours of pruning, the risk of disease at the pruning site is minimized so nipping it now while weâve been in this dry spell seems wise.
Thanks again, everyone, for all of the support.
-Jim
That sounds good, I dunno about you but here if we need to make winter cuts i will get at least a few inches of winter frost tip die back so maybe keep that in mind when making cuts? Also i wonder if large tomato cages would help protect the trees, the thing that leads me to it being a animal is all your trees having this so maybe its just a canker but maybe something is exposing some bark to spread the bacteria or fungal infection? I think the apple you can clearly see the infection went in with the cut the others donât seem so clear?
My zaiger root-1 has not been near as strong as the giselaâs which i really love all my trees on gisela are free standing and excellent size. I have g3 g5 and g6 and correspondingly strong - weak scions. It has worked well although i assume i have too much overset.
Either way i think this will be your best bet
Looks like a mark our cat left on my Alderman plum. Rubbing his cheek against it repeatedly, of all things.
The apples are in the ground and the Cherries in 45g soft pots, ~70â apart. Oddly, the Lapins on NR1 is next to the Rainier, between the it and the apples and is fine.
I will cover the tree post cut to protect from the cold the best I can too. On the bright side, i now have a short Cherry. 
. The
I stumbled across some info on apple-anthracnose
Says it infects pomme and stone fruits. I am planning to do a baking soda scrub on our apple trees, followed by a coat of dilute latex primer on the older wood. I am hoping it is sufficient for this climate.
Ouch. Yeah, some of this stuff is Yukky.
Those photos from the site look more like yours, and mine as well. They specifically mention the strings of bark left behind.
