We have lived here (Cincinnati) for about 4 years and have an ornamental cherry in front of the house that was planted when the house was built and is 15 years old according to the previous owners. In the summer of '07 a Hurricane blew through from the gulf coast, and the following spring the entire area started having issues with fire blight in pear and cherry trees. We got it in 3 trees (two large pear and the cherry in question) and had an arborist treat them all last year. I do not remember what he used (sorry) but he drilled into the tree trunks and installed some plastic containers. He also instructed us to not prune the trees until the blight appeared to be completely gone for fear of spreading it. At the beginning of this summer the 3 trees were all much healthier, but a small amount of blight remained in the cherry so we didn't prune it even though it seems to need it pretty badly. About a month ago, the southeast side of the tree started dropping leaves. It was droughty here, but we were watering the trees regularly. The cherry was the only one with signs of an issue. Now the entire SE side of the tree (the left side in the photo below) is almost bare and the other side is looking sick as well. I can't find any signs of insects, and the fire blight seems to be completely gone now. Any suggestions? I have recently lost my job and can't really afford the arborist again, but I also can't afford to replace this tree. Any help is greatly appreciated. Pictures attached. Thanks in Advance, Scott
Weeping crabapple tree, maybe 'Red Jade', with what is probably apple scab. The easiest thing is to remove it and replace with a tree that does not get scabby.
Thanks. I'm now a little worried about the qualifications of the arborist that said it was an ornamental cherry tree. But the fire blight does appear to be gone, so it's not all bad. Is there any hope of fighting apple scab? Recently unemployed and trying to keep a kid in college does not lend itself to the purchase of trees. Thanks
Is the tree behind it in the photo a cherry? There's quite a bit written about apple scab on the internet, so have a look around. For instance, there's come advice at the end of an article, including what they call "cultural advice, on this Ministry of Ontario website. What I'm seeing indicates that apple scab fungus is unlikely to kill a tree. This Toronto Forest Health Care document says you need to remove the fallen leaves, as they're a source of infection for next year. It has some other bits of advice, including what Ron said.
