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What's damaging my cherry tree?

13 years ago

I am hoping to find some ideas about what might be damaging my cherry tree. We just planted it this spring, and I pruned back the top to encourage branching, though it has barely leafed out and seems to be struggling. In the very center of the top of the trunk where it was pruned there is a neat hole about 1-2 cm with wood shavings around it - this is going straight down through the area where the heartwood would be. The top of the trunk around the hole is dry and cracked. My husband stuck a wire down into the hole and discovered it to be about 2 inches deep, and a black wasp-like insect flew out at him when he did this. We put some wax over the hole to keep the wasp thing out, but we haven't been able to figure out what kind of insect it might be or if we can expect more problems (like if it would have laid eggs in there). Anybody know what this is and what else we need to do to save the tree, if it can be saved?

Thanks!

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Comments (9)

Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
13 years ago
First, it was a mistake to prune the top to encourage branching. On top of that a wood-boring wasp liked the nice cut and moved in.

Next, hard to tell with info provided why cherry tree is struggling. My default is always improper planting. Could be weather. The site. The after care. Or any of these in combination with reducing the ability of the plant to make food to recover from transplant shock.

Dan
Kimmsr
13 years ago
Although the Shothole Borere adult looks more beetle like then wasp like since it is attracted to fresh pruning cuts you might want ot think about that one.
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"What caused the injury(ies)" Mabel, Montmorency is said to be good to -40F but not under every circumstance. There are so many things that have to be just right for your tree to be healthy enough to survive that limit. For example a tree that has begun to become stressed can become infected easier with bacteria P.S. short for "Psuedomonas syringae", which is an opportunistic disease. Once stressed and established these bacterias then try to kill plant cells in the way diseases do and the P.S. bacterias do "ice nucleate" adjacent plant cells. This means that the cells that are otherwise prepared to survive much colder than below freezing temperatures are less able to because the cells get injected with compounds that favor ice crystallization at closer temperatures to the normal freezing of water, when then the cells will freeze and burst. I would say most extension services are really not prepared to advise all the things you must do (tree health) because this can become a rather involved project in some weather locals and even soil types. You can't always rely on spraying to prevent initial infection sites because many of them have got specialized and resist the chemicals. I would be prepared to tell you to burn the tree after you've eaten the cherries, or at least surgically torch all the open diseased area. And if it is the disease I truly think it is (it happened in the same way to my cherry in Alaska) planting a peach (lower 48 peach experiences) will give you the same maintenance requirements because they are just as susceptible or more, to the same disease as cherries. But if you DO plant peach I've heard about a new peach rootstock bred in N.J. called 'Guardian' that has in trials shown to keep the host tree scaffold in good enough condition to prevent these bacterial infections, for the most part.
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emilyw
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for the responses - I think it is the wood wasp that did the damage; it looks about right. From what I read, it lays eggs in the tree, so now I'm wondering what, if anything, I can do to help the tree recover? Do I cut out the damage, and protect the cut this time? Should I just start shopping for a new tree?

In response to Dan's comment about pruning, I thought it was standard practice to prune back unbranched, dormant, bare root fruit trees by about a third when planting in early spring. That's what we've been doing and have had vigorous, healthy trees, but this is the first cherry tree we've planted. Are cherries different, or have we just been lucky?

Thanks again,
Emily
Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
13 years ago
'Bare root' is new information, but nonetheless that is old-school and abandoned practice, except amongst some older nurserypersons IME.

Dan
stompede
13 years ago
Dan is correct. There is absolutely no evidence that says prune newly planted shrubs. In fact, all evidence says pruning at the time of planting inhibits root growth. Suckers and low branches on the trunk tend to favor the most root growth.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
13 years ago
I gotta say that the pruning standards for fruit trees are very different from all other woody shrubs and trees. I don't think that that has changed. Fruit tree growers begin creating the 'scaffolding' of their trees as very small whips. It goes against what we know of terminal buds and root formation, but training fruit trees early on is essential to their longevity and productivity.

While in college, I did quite a bit of work in the research orchards at Va.Tech. It's from those times that I developed my 'eye' for pruning in general, but a knowledge of fruit trees, in particular.

Yes, cherry trees should be pruned with the scaffolding in mind, just like most other fruit trees.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
13 years ago
Crap, I thought I was in the tree forum.

Remember, this pruning situation applies ONLY TO (most) FRUIT TREES. For all other situations, pruning upon planting is no longer an accepted nor acceptable practice.
Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
13 years ago
I learned my propagation at UCD, a top orchard school, and training early does not include reducing the newly-planted bareroot tree's ability to create food when the degree day mark hits.

Stopping the auxin signal and causing crazy bud reaction isn't fun for the root system in any tree. There is no reason to think a physiological difference exists in orchard trees to stress the root system and it be OK.

Dan
peace_is_purple_hotmail_com
13 years ago
no one ever answered the question on how to get rid of the moths/wasps boring into the tree. i have the same issue and i am curious to know the answer as my young cherry tree lost all but one of it's branches last year, and if it happens again this year it will not survive.

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