The cherries on my 5 year old Lapin Tree are prematurely turning dark red and then falling off. There are some normal green ones left but the bumper crop is no more. Can anyone suggest what the problem may be. I live in the Lower Mainland of BC. Ed
I have a very large, old, productive tree as well and this year, the bumper crop is already deteriorating as of this week. The cherries are not getting larger and are turning brown/red and falling off. This seems to be a fungus of some sort since it seems to "infect" clumps at a time. There are larger green ones still, higher in the tree. How to prevent the good ones becoming infected? I too live in the Lower Mainland. Could the hot weather have had an effect? I too would welcome suggestions. Thanks, Cheryl
We are also in Vancouver and have had the same problem this year and last year on our 4-year-old lapin cherry tree (i.e. fruit starting but then shrinking, turning dark red and falling off). Any help is appreciated. I have not been able to find anything relevant on this issue online. We did use dormant oil on the tree over the winter but no "tanglefoot". Thanks, Doran
Hi epodworny - There still seems to be some fruit that is growing properly but I would guess that at least 50% has shrivelled up after getting what looked like a good start.
Our 12 year old Lapin's is doing the same thing here. Thought we were in for a huge crop, but most have turned pink and are now dropping. On closer inspection, as someone suggested...I notice a shriveling patch on many of these aborted cherries. Kinda like brown rot, tho I thought that showed up much later in the process. Maybe that record hot spell has caused this...never seen such a phenomenon tho we always get those few fruit that do drop early. Never such a large percentage like this has been. At least it's nice to know we're not the only one cursed garden...?
What you experienced is called June drop. Cherries that were not properly pollinized or were damaged by frost will not develop. It's a pollination problem most probably.
If pollination doesn't occur, the fruit will not form and will fall when the flowers wither !! This happens not later than end of April....the same happens with frost damage. If fruits arrive to June and then they fall, there will be another problem....Monilia for instance !!
June drop is a normal event for most temperate fruit trees. My cherry trees lose 50 to 90% of their early fruits every year. It doesn't necessarily indicate that there is any disease involved; it's just the tree's shedding of excess fruit so that the rest will ripen fully. However, excessive drop can indicate poor growing conditions, such as too much or too little soil moisture.
