Tippy that is a strange thing going on there with your cherry… It doesn’t look like brown rot. I get some cherries that are dropping (June drop, a self-thinning kind of thing) that can get like that but never that many.
I got my Elevate from Keystone I think. It is not the most effective overall but it was the cheapest thing not in the Indar resistance group.
@scottfsmith
Right after I took that picture, I picked off as many such cherries off. They came off easily as they were about to fall off anyway. I don’t know what caused it. I thought it was brown rot. Some of those cherries were black with brown rot spores in them.
I think @BobVance just posted a similar pic of his cherries recently.
I don’t know what caused these cherries to turn yellow, then brown and fall off. I would say I lost over 70% of Black Gold this year. Not many left.
I sprayed Surround and Indar again afterward.
By the way, instead of Elevate, I may just use chlorothalonil instead.
I think the one has a 60-day PHI, up to shuck split is all you can do with it. I never use it for that reason.
I have mentioned a few times for brown rot I use Pyraclostrobin with Boscalid and alternate with Infuse or indar. I also use captan before flowering if I have it. Plant Guard is the only product for home use with Pyraclostrobin with Boscalid . It also has an insecticide Lambda-cyhalothrin, It is a pyrethroid, a class of synthetic insecticides that mimic the structure and properties of the naturally occurring insecticide pyrethrin. I need it for PC so it doesn’t matter to me they are mixed together. Pyraclostrobin with Boscalid do not attack the fungus the same way Indar and Infuse do. It has a different mode of action. Like attacking the fungus on 2 fronts, and it works, and works well. I don’t see any brown rot here granted pressure is low here.
Bummer!!! May be I just use it for pre-bloom soray and after shuck split and switch to Indar later.
Glad you mention PHI. I think a lot of people who are new to spraying don’t know about PHI (preharvest interval) and REI (reentry interval).
I think you will have to do a combination of things to be successful. I don’t think one thing will be a silver bullet.
There are some other options that you may want to consider as far as canker resistant trees. If you like modern cherries (which are generally firmer) I would look at Ebony Pearl and Burgundy Pearl. Both are reported to be resistant to canker.
Another option is to look at Duke cherries. Duke cherries are hybrids of sweet and tart cherries and historically were planted in areas where sweet cherries do poorly. Generally tart cherries have fewer problems with canker and I would expect Duke cherries would fare better with canker as well.
If you want to learn more about Duke cherries you could visit this thread.
@scottfsmith , et al,
Can you tell what caused these cherries to turn brown (starting at the stem end) and fell off?
Lack of pollination did not look like this in my experience.
I sprayed copper at dormant. Indar fungicide at petal fall and 8 days later. Before the 2nd Indar spray, I already saw many clusters turned yellow and brownish. I lost 90-95 % of this Black Gold this way this year.
Maybe it was a delayed response to freezes? I thought I was going to have about half an apricot crop but eventually they pretty much all dropped. I think the cold did enough damage that eventually caught up with the growth somehow. Cold damages fruits more on top - my apricots had a strong signature of that, it was obvious from looking at the fruit that is what happened. Your cherries also look damaged from the top.
Scott,
Thank you, Scott. Very possible. Yes, all damage started from the top.
We had temp at 31F during bloom and again a week later. With this much damage, I should not rely on the critical temp chart too much any longer.
Like I said the damage has been over 90%. So much so that I wonder if it is worth it to protect the remaining against birds.
@2manytrees,
As you may know, one of your trees, the one that is sprouting from the rootstock will need to be grafted on with a named variety (or two or more). I’ve found grafting cherries easy.
I see if @speedster1 can chime in. He is in W. Virginia. I think he grow or have grown sweet cherries.
I live in the Mid Atlantic but have only ever planted cherry trees on G5. I’ve never tried Colt. I just wanted smaller trees. I’ve not had the greatest luck with cherries here. They are the biggest magnet for Japanese beetles in my orchard. Not overly vigorous either. My Black Gold on G5 died with no explanation. I still have two grafted cherries on G5 but frost wiped out this year’s crop.
Is it worth grafting to, or should I just remove the rootstock and start new with something else?
You mean a new sweet cherry tree. If so, you ask the wrong person. Maybe, you can try sour cherry like Monmorency. If it were me, I would be done with sweet cherries. 
The simplest and fastest in most cases would be planting a new tree. Having said this you can certainly graft a new scion to the rootstock. If you have space you could do both.
Also you were asking about Colt rootstock, I have seen a couple of references stating it is not cold hardy. However, they don’t say to what actual zone the rootstock is hardy to. So it’s difficult to say if Colt would work for you. It’s seems Colt is a fairly common roostock in England and in the Western United States (California?). So you might want to look in to this before buying a tree on Colt rootstock.
Maybe a few of you could help me out so much information it’s overwhelming. I’m in zone 5A New England and just starting off with Cherry and Plum trees. Is there a book or something that you would recommend to start to learn about spraying and such. I was given quite a Variety if stuff in trade from a job. Bare roots to trees ECT. Several different varieties. Bing,Rainer,Juliet, and a few others. Everything is in containers most are 3-4 feet tall with a few taller. Wanted to keep growing in containers for a while until we get land cleared to plant. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated…
Stephen,
Where the zone 5 are you in New England, VT, NH, ME or MA?
You pick the pickier fruit to grow, plums and cherries. It will be a learning curve. For instanve, Bing cracks too much for rainy NE and Rainier is not hardy enough for.zone 5.
You grow them in pots, that can be a good thing (can be protected against rain) or a bad thing (some cherry rootstocks may be too big to be in a pot) and many more.
Someone else may be able to help you with books. I just look up the Guide category of this forum to learn about spraying.
For low impact by Scott Smith
And for full impact by Alan
I like to spray indar right before the blossoms open. I’ll do a spray of Imunox earlier when the temps warm up. After all the blossom are done and no bees are in the area I do another spray of indar mixed with a strong dose of triazicide or imidian. That has worked well for me. Imidian is the strongest but it’s not meant for home orchards with it’s hazards.
Yes, cannot use Imidan in a residential area. Triazicise is a hit or miss. Sprayed it for 3-4 years, not working consistently well.
I try to find a cheaper version of fungicide that is in a different class from Indar (and Immunox) to avoid buliding resistance. Chlorothalonil is in a different class but has a long PHI so can’tbe used after shuck split.
Thanks for the reply!! I’m in Vermont. I do have containers up to 30 gallons and can move them to hopefully they will go into the ground and not need pots…But I have a chance to pickup a good size greenhouse pretty cheap so maybe they will go in there for better control if I can keep them smaller.
Rainier can work here, Bing, maybe not so much. However, Cornell had a long-term breeding program to improve choices for the northeast, and of these, I believe the most grower friendly may be Whitegold.
Conditions in spring and site are very important. If site isn’t very open with plenty of eastern sun, and even all day sun, wet springs can rot the flowers entirely or most of the fruit later on. If fruit remains until late spring it all depends on conditions a week to 10 days before ripening. If it’s dry you are in luck, if not, you may have to have fungicide on the fruit active right through ripening and will still get lots of cracking.
In addition, you will likely have to net your trees to benefit from the occasional great harvest, or your work will have mainly served your feathered “friends”. As satisfying as having your own cherries in June may be, they really aren’t much or any better than store-bought, IMO.
All that said, I still have a couple of trees in my orchard. Their crop was frozen out this year- but then, all my tree-fruit was besides apples, figs and mulberries.
