No pics :( My good phone died because of my sweaty gardening, lol. But it's definitely powdery mildew, at least if it looks the same as in roses. We have 'wild' seedlings from really old ornamental Japanese cherries around here as our only 'wild' cherries, and they grow great. I've never seen black knot, which I hope is a good sign. Cankers on lots of cultivated things are a big problem, though, yeah. My orchard is nice and windy, so it stays drier than many Southern yards, but you know that humidity is still way up there disturbingly often! I know the cherries are a bit of an experiment. Unfortunately, my very favorite fruits and nuts are hard to grow here. So I grow both easy and hard fruits and hope that the harder ones do well enough to not rip out :) I have room, so that part is easy enough.

I'm finding in ordering trees, particularly fruit trees on the internet, they invariably have dormant infections and that the dormancy will break at the 1st sign of stress the tree goes through and you will have to toss the tree or as you have done prune and hope. I am beginning to think buying from a local store like Wal*Mart or such is better because those trees have to look good or they won't sell so they get the better treated trees. Plus you much only go to Wal*Mart (or other local store) to swap out or refund typical up to a year after the tree was bought if you save the killed tree and your receipt. Compare that with ordering 10 diseased saplings on the internet.

I bought my Montmorency from the same nursery (that I sent the info to). They still haven't responded. I do know that the fruit trees they buy are fairly boring, but tested varieties. There are never more than six or seven of any type of fruit tree, if that at the nursery. I live near huge farm 'growers' heaven (or close to Middletown, RI) They specialize in trees and shrubs (wholesale, but not fruit). Guess I'll have to wait for Raintree to pick it up. Cherries seem to grow quickly. Is it on semi-dwarf stock? thanks again! Mrs G

Greetings: Usually when I pit my cherries, I wash them after pitting and then chill in the refrigerator over night and pit them the next day. Cold cherries are not as juicy and pit easier. This year being a poor year for all 3 of my cherries as far as yield (Mesabi, North Star and Surecrop), we picked a bunch of Montmorency the first week in August in Door County of Wisconsin which is a prime tart cherry growing area in the U.S. We were on vacation there and happy to be there during the cherry season. I noticed the growers there commercially harvest with the shaking machines and then have the fruit dump into ice water to chill them before pitting. When we got home from vacation with the cherries, I put mine in the sink with ice water then pitted. It worked really well! A little cold on my fingers picking up the cherries but it was a good tip since I did not have room in the refrigerator to chill them all overnight like I usually do before pitting. My modern plunger type pitter works great but the orange plastic tab that prevents the cherry from falling thru the hole for the pits is wearing out. Can't seem to find a replacement for it. Hate to buy a new pitter because of a worn out piece of plastic. There must be a way to make something that would fit.