What is going on with my Kwanzan Cherry Tree??

A bit of past history------

Our block had Kwanzan Cherry Trees planted in front of every house in 1072.

The grew and dazzled us all with their pink tissue blooms for years and years.

After many years--the limbs and stems became hollow--due to (??) ants tunneling
or other bugs--or the tree's declining age.

The hollow branches and trunks became bird-nesting Condos--much to my amusement.
The returned year after year and guarded their holes with their lives. mostly sparrows and Starlings.

These trees have been on a decline for many years now. many homeowners have cut them down--
or have had them pruned back severely.

Last year--since mine looked near death--I decided to prune mine back as well. Rejuvenate it!

This spring--it did grow a bunch of new branches and leaves--and the starlings are still nesting in the
trunk's hollow innards. Must be like the grand palace of nesting spaces.....:o)

I just walked across the street to check out mu neighbor's trees--also cut back and re-growing--
but they are all OK. I snipped off all the affected tips of the branches ans will continue to do so.
The edges of these affected leaves are so tightly curled that I could not even un-curl them.
Was curious what may be inside the curls. One of them showed little black "seed-like" particles
inside the curled edges.

Can anyone tell me what is going on here???? This seems really weird!

Hope my multi-pictures post. There have been issues.... MNOPE! They did not.
Will do this two at a time....Glad I c/p my text. been doing that as a preventative
measure to losing all i have written.

#1--The tree as it is today.
#2--What looks like the beginning of the problem.

Will send other pics on following Post....

#1--Here is the tree as it looks today.
#2sows the curled, affected leaves.

Sorry about the spelling errors! Fingers hitting the wrong--or neighboring keys....

#3---Here is a picture of what the affected leaves look like.
This is at the stem ends where the new growth is.
#4--Same thing.....

Part Three----

#5--A closer look at few of the picked-off leaf tips....
#6--A Macro of one of the branch ends and thecurling leaf-edges.

What can you tell me about this?

Years ago--I had some kind of a "Mosaic Virus" thing going on with my datura leaves.
It was bizarre! They looked leathery and stiff and shrunken--like a mummy version of them.

Thanks! Gita

I've never seen that before (but don't have any cherry trees)
(Yes your typing is usually about perfect :^) this must have you upset!..)

Some info about Kwanzan

Neither stress-tolerant or highly drought-tolerant, Kwanzan Cherry should be located on a site with loose soil and plenty of moisture. Not for an urban parking lot or exposed street tree planting where borers and other problems normally attack. It has some tolerance to salt, and tolerates clay if well-drained.
Kwanzan Cherry has good yellow fall color, does not bear fruit, but is troubled with pests. Pests include aphids which cause distortion of new growth, deposits of honeydew, and sooty mold; borers attack flowering cherries; scales of several types infest cherries; spider mites cause yellowing or stippling; tent caterpillars make large webbed nests in trees then eat the foliage.
Kwanzan Cherry prefers full sun, is intolerant of poor drainage, and is easily transplanted. However, useful life of the species is limited to about 15 to 25 years for 'Kwanzan', on a good site. But the tree is a joy during this short period and should be planted.


This message was edited May 14, 2012 11:04 AM

Hope somebody can help with the mystery!

In a (probably) unrelated problem, I think some kind of fungal blight has hit the wild cherry trees in the back of our yard this year... lots and lots of leaves blowing down, covered in round yellowed spots. The sour cherry trees in our little orchard got something similar a couple of times and lost most of their leaves but survived... I have sprayed them preventatively, but I can't effectively spray the big trees back there.

What's happening with the cherry trees this year?? Hope the commercial orchards aren't being hit.

Thanks all---

I have an update....Been outside sorting EVERYONE'S orders this morning.

I had left the affected tip leaves on the paper towel outside--and this morning the
paper was covered (well--a lot of them) very, very tiny black insects of some kind.
No bigger than a grain of sand--but they were moving--almost too slow to detect.

I took some pictures--but even in a macro mode, you will not see anything to go by.
Haven't uploaded them yet. I may go out with a magnifying glass and see if I can make something out.

FlowAjen--These trees all have been planted on the curb strip in 1972. A long life!
So many of the hollow stems have been homes to nesting birds.
They have had their share of road salt as the plows go through.
This curling of the leaves has never been there before. Just now.

Sally--I have spell-check--so my spelling is OK. But my fat fingers many times hit 2 keys at once.
Then I have to correct it.

Will check in a bit later again. Gita

Picture is taken from the front of my house (that's my car) towards the West.
You can see about how the trees look. This was taken summer of 2010.

I took another look at the affected leaves, and I'm thinking it might be extreme damage from an sucking-type insect, either aphids or mites... For now, you might try continuing to cut off the badly affected/infested tips and spraying the rest with insecticidal soap (or even just soapy water). I don't know how close you are to your county extension service office, but they will often have somebody able to put material under a dissection 'scope and identify the problem.

A personal experience with Kwansan. I purchased one knowing of the problems (my husband had to have it) despite what I read in Michael Dirr's Hardy Trees and shrubs. He notes that prunus serrulata cultivars are short lived, with Kwansan the most affected. They last 10 to 15 years. The one we purchased was fairly substantial, so it was probably about seven years old. Viruses , he noted, lead to gradual decline and death. After a few lovely years, we had to start removing limbs. I did every preventative to keep it from declining, from dormant oil to insecticidal soap, but the viruses came with the tree. In the last year, it exploded in the most gorgeous bloom ever, and then died.

If I could make a suggestion, I would recommend a Yoshino cherry (the Tidal Basin tree at the capital). We put it on a very exposed site and windy site, and it grew quickly into a substantial tree that rewards us with a lovely burst of flowers every year. It is one of the joys of our spring. And the shape is gorgeous. Here is is in our 2009 March blizzard.

Jill and Donna---

On further investigation of the affected leaves--I found out that there is a kind of weevil doing the
curling up of the leaves. It is no more than 1/8th" big, and is tear-drop shaped. Seems hard-boddied.
It seems to have legs and antennas. on a "microscopic" scale.
It does move--as when I unfurled the curled up edge of the leaf--it exposed a colony of sorts--
of these black weevils/bugs and also a lot of micro-white--thread like--??? eggs?--young ones??..

The black weevils started crawling on my arm--as they had previously crawled on the paper towel
in my pictures I posted earlier. Will not post them again! The time it takes for pictures to upload right now--
I DO NOT want to deal with it!!!
As the leaf-edges get curled up--they also turn red and very brittle. Kind of when something gets a "Mosaic Virus".

I do not really care about this tree stump any more! I could have it cut down--but I would feel very sorry
for all the birds that have counted on the holes in the stems and trunks as ideal nesting places.
Still--I am curious what all this is about. None of my neighbors, that have this same tree--and just as old--seem to show
this problem./ I walked around and looked.

I could spay it all with Neem? It is a very small tree by now. I have to spray my Hemlocks any way--
now that I have trimmed them to the nubs...They seem to, forever, have issues with the Wooly Adalgae scale.

AHHHHHHHHHH....After the Swap! I will have more time....I am SOOO overwhelmed at this time!

Here is a picture of the "colony" in an unfurled leaf. The macro did not do too macro.
Maybe I just do not yet know how to use it right. If you squint--you can get the idea.....
1--The Bug Nest. Sorry--but it is fuzzy!
2--Re-posting the close-up of the leaf-tips....

Beautiful picture Donna!

Gita.
Get a grip- on a saw, and cut that poor suffering thing down. The blasted starlings and english sparrows will find another place. Your tree is infested because it is already so weak.

Good detective work!

I'm only speaking 'harshly' because deep down I am sure you just want help making this decision.

Sally---

It is already--almost cut down. I really do not have any emotional connection to this tree-
But--like every planting one has had for 40+ years--there IS some kind of a connection.

I will continue cutting off all the infested branch-tips--even if I have to do it back to the branches. .
If it does not help--i will cut the whole tree back to the nibs.
If that does not help--it will be gone! Hope this is a reasonable compromise.

The hard part is that--one cannot just cut down a 45 year old tree and, simply, replant another.
There ARE the roots of the old one to deal with.
SO! If I cut it down completely--there will be NO replanting of any new tree.

Most of my neighbors have already done that.....
These tees are old! They look half dead! They are survivors, though, as each spring they still
present you with awesome blooms--no matter how sick they are....