This is a Mt. Fuji or something like it - a beautiful small cherry. It bloomed and flourished last year and again a great bloom this year. In the course of a few days all the blooms and the new foliage has turned brown/black on several core branches. We are in the fruit-growing part of WA and the tree receives water daily from an automatic sprinkler system. Does anyone have any ideas on what this might be or where to start to save this beautiful tree?
Well, is it dead or not - make a hard little scratch on the trunk and see if there's bright green underneath (which is good, brown isn't). If it is, what's it planted in (where and what soil)? It does sound like overwatering has rotted some roots, which means you need a fungicide geared to fruit trees. I can't say what it will do though to future fruit, or for how long. You'll also have to cut off the black foliage and/or branches to healthy places.
Mt.fuji cherry is Prunus incisa and the variety is probably kojo-no-mai http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0302/blossom_wilt.asp Rima's right with the over watering.
it would also be the same here Mt. Fuji is Prunus shirotae Fuji cherry is Prunus incisa...........i do apologize for any confusion
Soil is clay and I think Rima, you've hit the nail on the head. It's between two spinkler heads and I recently changed an every-other-day watering of 5 minutes, to every day. The tree is not dead but almost as I'm looking at it the leaves are browning and drying up. Our side of the mountains is very arid and I guess I always think more water is better. However, we've had a cool Spring.....so.... Is it salvageable if I back off on water do you think?
Water root area as needed, instead of wetting down top every day--assuming frequent sprinkling is contributing to the problem and infestation was not something that maybe was going to occur anyway, like fire blight. Would think other plants on system would also object to anaerobic conditions created by daily watering. You want soil to have a chance to dry out a little between waterings, so oxygen does not become deficient--most roots need lots of air. Too dry and they die, too wet and they also die. Need to find out why, exactly, top is blighting off before can be sure remedies employed likely to work. Maybe try Extension office or Master Gardener clinic.
Ron, will take a branch to Washington State Extension office on Monday. Meanwhile, changed sprinklers back to every-other-day. Any less and the grass starts to brown, since we get very-little-to-no precip. Unfortunately, both grass and tree are on same line. Have reduced the sprinkler coverage by 50% by adjusting one of the two heads away from the tree. Hope all of this helps. It's a beautiful tree.
Daily watering not necessarily too much, depends on site conditions including weather and soil texture. 5 minutes seems like rather short interval, but again how much to put down each time will vary with soil and weather. Daily blast of 10 minutes may be commonly used even over here, but on both sides of the mountains I have noticed diligently watered lawns, that are kept spring green all summer do often stink like a swamp.
