Knowledgebase
Young sour cherry - 50% of fruit is nasty-looking #879335
Asked July 29, 2024, 8:00 PM EDT
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:
Hope this is helpful!