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Young sour cherry - 50% of fruit is nasty-looking #879335

Asked July 29, 2024, 8:00 PM EDT

Hi - I've got a couple of young sour cherry trees planted on the edge of a small, old apple orchard. The oldest (five-ish years, believed to be an Evans Bali) started bearing fruit last year and has quite a bit this year. About 1/2 of the fruit is deformed this year. The other 1/2 of the fruit is just fine. And it's all mixed up together. Ugly fruit hanging right next the beautiful red cherries. I can't tell if this is fungal or insect-caused??? It seems that only the fruit is affected. Leaves look fine. I don't use any sort of pesticide. Have never fertilized. I do prune each spring. The tree has good air flow and air drainage. Soils are moderately well drained. We've had a lot of rain in June & July. Much wetter than usual for us (central U.P.). I've attached a pic. Any thoughts on what it might be? Suggestions on how to handle? I'd appreciate suggestions for cultural or organic treatment. THANK YOU! Lauri

Marquette County Michigan

Expert Response

Hello! 

Looks like there was some insect damage caused by plum curculio (the deformed fruit and crescent-shaped scars on fruit) and also some bacterial canker infection (the shriveled, sunken, brown lesions). 

Here are basic overviews on this pest and disease: 

https://www.canr.msu.edu/ipm/diseases/plum_curculio

https://www.canr.msu.edu/ipm/diseases/bacterial_canker_blossom_blast?language_id=#gallery

Plum curculio is a common pest in Michigan and bacterial canker is a sporadic problem, dependent on weather conditions. We've seen a lot of fruit infections from bacterial canker on sweets and tarts this year due to the wet season and right temperatures for the pathogen at different fruit growth stages.  

Increasing air flow is great, as you've mentioned you've done.  Unfortunately, we don't have effective controls for bacterial canker at this time, conventionally or organically. Copper products can be used but are generally not considered very effective and can cause phytotoxicity under different conditions.  And not much can be done culturally besides pruning. 

There are really no effective organic products for controlling Plum curculio either. Kaolin clay is sometimes used on apples but is not recommended for cherry. There is a product called PyGanic, but I don't think it is worth the cost. This article includes some cultural practices and a little about some biological control agents you could look into:

https://fff.hort.purdue.edu/article/tips-for-managing-plum-curculio-in-tree-fruit/#:~:text=Plum%20curculio%20is%20native%20to,mating%20sites%20for%20adult%20beetles.

Hope this is helpful! 

An Ask Extension Expert Replied July 30, 2024, 10:12 AM EDT
Thank you for the quick response. I'll check out the articles. 

I just love this service - have used it a number of times, always with a high degree of satisfaction!!

Lauri

On Tue, Jul 30, 2024 at 10:12 AM Ask Extension <<personal data hidden>> wrote:
The Question Asker Replied July 30, 2024, 4:04 PM EDT

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