Weeping cherry oozing clear sap

Discussion in 'Fruit and Nut Trees' started by Mary-Ellen, Jul 20, 2007.

  1. Mary-Ellen

    Mary-Ellen Member

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    Nanaimo, B.C. Canada
    An elderly friend recently asked me to identify the cause of the CLEAR exudite coming from various lesions on the branches of her young weeping cherry, and I'm stumped. In some places it seems the clear, gelatinous material has hardened, like sap from a pine does, but this could be a seperate event.

    When the problem first appeared, in April or May, she scraped away the softened bark around the gelatinous stuff, and treated the scraped areas with a mild bleach solution.The lesions she treated no longer ooze, and appear dry and healed, but in some cases she's scraped right through the bark to the cambium, effectively girdling up to half the branch (the branches are quite fine, often no more than 3/8" in diameter) and new lesions are appearing all over the tree. The trunk, below the graft, doesn't have any lesions, nor does the graft itself, but even the thicker portions of the branches, where they exit the graft and are about 3/4" thick, are developing oozing lesions.

    The tree is on Gabriola Is., but inland, and otherwise well-tended, and until this year, the third year she's had it, problem free.

    Is this another form of bacterial canker, should we attempt to control it with copper (i.e. Bordo solution) or should the tree come out, given the damage that scraping has caused?
    Mary-Ellen
     
    Last edited: Aug 16, 2007
  2. Mary-Ellen

    Mary-Ellen Member

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