Hello, This is my first post, and truly the start of my venture into botany in any way. I live in Vancouver and have two cherry trees on my property. In the front of my house I have an ancient tree that came with the house - it has sent out shoots with younger trees but I am assuming they are all the same tree. The second I transplanted four years from about ten blocks away and it is young - it is in the back of our house. I also live on one of those streets that is lined with cherry trees by the city - it looked beautiful this year; same as ever! Last three years everything has went swimmingly. We didn't manage to pick the cherries because of birds, but the trees grew well. Unfortunately, this year the lower branches have holes in them and are turning yellow. This is the case of all the cherry trees I can see on our street. I did some investigation and wonder if it is Leaf Spot. I couldn't find information on how this spreads from tree to tree, or how fast, but I assume polenators could do the deed. I also wonder if it is a product of our last winter. Our Eucalyptus tree died this winter (along with half of those in the city, that I can see). I live on the east side of Fraser Street around 12th avenue. Has anyone else seen this? Should I contact the city about the street trees? What are my next steps? It would be a shame to lose these trees since they are as old as the house, I would guess. I've attached these bad pictures: Thanks for any insight. - S
It would certainly be worthwhile to contact the city and alert them to the issue re: the street trees. It may be that they've already assessed the issue elsewhere and know what the problem is (and possible solutions). A close-up photo of those holes in the lower branches would be helpful.
Probably sweet cherry rootstock sprouts that should be removed anyway. If the whole tree has gone over to rootstock the entire specimen(s) should be taken out, sweet cherry is murder on sidewalks, as well as being prone to a host of ailments (as you are discovering).
