I have a golden plum tree that is growing from an old tree that was cut down about 10 years ago. We just kept cutting all the shoots that came from the stump until I decided a couple years ago to just let one grow and have a tree again. Problem is it’s got all this black and grey stuff growing all over it. Not sure what it is or how to deal with it. I don’t want to cut the tree down. Any help please
It looks like an incredibly bad case of Black Knot fungus with some kind of parasitic fungus making white patches on it. It's probably not worth saving the tree because it must be very susceptible to Black Knot, which is difficult to prevent. If you want to try saving it, you will have to cut off all limbs and portions of the trunk with Black Knot showing and then watch carefully (forever!) and remove any subsequent Black Knot appearances. Note that Black Knot is not black in its initial stages and looks like a cancerous growth.
