We bought our house in December and it came equipped with 1 plum, 2 peach, 1 apple and 1 cherry tree. All look healthy and are producing except for the cherry tree. The cherry tree leafed out and blossomed, but only a hand full of cherries have appeared. The leave and branches look good as do the cherries we can see (they are at the very top of the tree - 25 feet up!). The tree appears full grown and the property is 15 years old so I would guess the tree is between 8 - 15 years old. The big concern is the condition of the trunk and lower branches. There is a lot of peeling bark and damage. In my internet searching, I've read that it could be borers or some type of bacterial canker? I did peel back one area of bark in early June and found something that looked like a silk cocoon. However, I'm not sure if that was the damager or just something taking advantage of the protection of the peeled back bark. I'm going to attach some pictures. Can this tree be saved? Is it a danger to the healthy trees? I'm so happy to have fruit trees and it breaks my heart to think of having to chop it down.
It looks to me like canker or winter damage. Is the damage on the sunny side? The trunk is very exposed, could it be freezing and thawing on one side? I like the new branches on the bottom, it would be nice to emphasize them by lobing off the top. Minimum; remove the competing leader, you only need one, redirect some vigour to the bottom.
