Cherry Leaf Spot on Recently planted Shrubs

6 years ago

Hello,

Last Spring ('17) I planted 30 different U of S romance series shrubs such as juliet, romeo and cupid and unfortunately it was a very wet spring that year which led to the shrubs developing leaf spot and having practically all the shrubs defoliated by late July/August. I read that shrubs which get hit really hard with the disease can become less winter hardy thereby reducing the yield/growth next season. I'm not so worried about yield since they are young anyways but just wondering what are the chances of the tree's making it over the winter with minimal damage? I live in Zone 5 here in Ontario but its been a pretty cold winter so far but I'm hoping that since these cherries were bred in saskatchewan they should be fine with respect to hardiness. Are the trees more likely to be sensitive to extreme cold since I just planted last spring and they got hit with leaf spot or is it the same for established cherry plantings?

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Comments (5)

aleks103
Original Author
6 years ago
Anyone else have a similar experience with cherry leaf spot? If so, how did the tree(s) respond the following year?
rphcfb14
6 years ago
A Cherry leave spot disease is very common. If you don’t mind using chemical, spraying it with myclobutanil (common brand name is Immunox) when the trees leave out. You may need to spray a few times a season. Read and follow the label.
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NHBabs z4b-5a NH
6 years ago
If you didn't clean up all the dropped foliage, do that as well since the spores can winter over in dropped leaves.

I don't have any experience with these, but don't think it is likely to be a hardiness issue, though if they were small and didn't build up root mass and energy stores due to the leaf loss, they may struggle some next season.
spartanapples
6 years ago
I grow Mesabi, North Star and one other tart cherry variety. I find a big difference in how susceptible some varieties seem to be to cherry leaf spot than others. But also a big difference in leaf spot year to year based on weather conditions and I suppose overwintering fungi.

One year it was so bad that my surecrop cherry (stark Nursery) was defoliated by early August. It came back the following season just fine. I was concerned as you are about stress and increased winter injury but I did not notice any problems with that.

Now I always spray with chlorothalonil just after cherry harvest as a preventative spray. I still get leaf spot some years. Last year some of my cherries defoliated by 50% despite a preventative spray. I will conclude that at least spraying after harvest slowed down the rate of infection as my leaf spot issues were usually more severe the years I did not spray after harvest.

Sometimes it fools me as I see only a few infected leaves during harvest time so I decide not to spray after harvest. Then I return and see that leaf spot has spread like wild fire and wish I had sprayed.

Nice to read Myclobutanil works too! Since I have that in my arsenal, I may try that this year and see if works same or better than spraying with chlorothalonil.
eastmeetwest
6 years ago
Myclo works well with cherry leave spot and Apple Cedar Rust (CAR). I only spray after the trees leaf out about twice 10-14 days apart. Some spray more and earlier.

I don't need to. It's also true that on a drier year, you have less issue with these fungal diseases.