Knowledgebase

Rotted Cherries this season #871690

Asked June 05, 2024, 11:15 AM EDT

I have a cherry tree in my yard that for the first year since moving in the home in 2021 has produced cherries that rotted pretty quickly. It appears to have some type of mold or fungus on the cherries which spread pretty rapidly to cherries that were in good health (~48hours). The tree is in great health considering someone on the block told me it was struck by lightning a few years back. Is this an indication that the tree is dying or was it just a bad season? Should I do something to treat the tree going into the fall/winter? Could this be prevented in the future with treatment or maintenance in late winter/early spring? Any advice to get the tree back in shape for next year and for years to come would be greatly appreciated. 

Howard County Maryland

Expert Response

Hi, 

These symptoms are consistent with Brown Rot, and the infection period likely took place a couple weeks ago or so.  A fungicide spray needs to be applied before the infection starts to help it be preventative in the future. Orchard growers rotate fungicides in their spray program, in order to switch out periodically what chemical they are using so it acts differently on the disease spores in question so they can't become resistant to a single treatment type. This might be harder to do at a home scale given the expense of having additional fungicides to use, but it is one option to try in the future.

The link in the pest management section of our Growing Stone Fruits page that directs you to the Virginia Tech pest management guide publication is a thorough resource for determining which pesticides to consider using, when, and at what dosage rate to combat the typical ailments of cherry trees. (It's a long document, but you can search it for "cherry" or "brown rot" to jump to relevant sections.)

Let us know if you have further questions. 

Emily

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