We’ve got a bad case of what I think is cherry leaf spot on some of our cherry trees.
The leaves become spotted, turn yellow, and fall off the tree.
This cherry tree looks like October instead of August.
One of the recommended cultural practices is to remove the fallen leaves to decrease the amount of disease that overwinters in the soil to reinfect the trees the next season. I’m hoping that the fact that the first six months of 2008 were the wettest on record contributed to this disease that is mainly spread through rain splash and wet leaves. Our north star cherries in another location do not seem to be suffering from the same problem – I don’t know if the difference in susceptibility is due to a different variety, or location on a southern slope instead of northern slope that .