Could it be overwatering? If the soil is not well drained, you have to be careful watering. They certainly need consistent water in a dry climate, but too much at one time is not good for the roots.

Cherries have never been known to grow really well in the very sunny hot (and fairly dry) climate of Southern California. The leaves are not scorched, but it looks like your tree might be getting too much sun exposure and hot temperatures, and you are trying to counteract the wilting leaves with too much water. I am not sure if this is your problem, but one strategy is to put a loose weave partially transparent polyester fabric cover over it to cut down on some of the sun exposure. The cover on mine is directly over the top, so it only shields light during the middle of the day, when the scorching noon sun is at its worst.

Many people make the mistake thinking they can try to counteract wilting in a young tree with more fertilizer, because they are not really sure what the real problem is.

You might give less water, but water more frequently (4 times a week), if the weather is really hot.

Yes, supposedly they say cherry trees need full sun, but this is not true for young trees in hot climate zones. I really think the issue is the sun exposure combined with the high temperatures. Get some tall poles and a length of loose weave polyester fabric to make a covering. You can find some for only a few dollars.

If there is one day where the temperatures are really high, the sun is scorching, you can mist the leaves with the hose. One time at 10-12 and then another time at 2-4 in the day, if you happen to be home, and you really want to put in the extra effort. This can help prevent excessive water loss from the foliage, but the effect does not last long.

I also want to point out this advice (about misting the leaves) is very specific to those living in California or the Southwest, because in the South it tends to be much more humid.

But again, what I think will benefit your tree the most, in this particular situation, is a little bit of light shade cover!

Eventually when your tree grows a more established root system it will be better able to deal with the evaporative water loss from the leaves.

Thanks fireballsocal, there is no gopher mounds around.

Thanks parker25mv, probably I planted my cherry in a place with too much sunshine? I live in Northern California (zone 9b). I thought cherry tree needs full sun so I specifically chose a spot with most sunshine in my yard for it... :(

In the first 10 days of transplanting, I did water a lot to make sure the root has enough water. I just did shallow watering in the past 10 days since when the leaves started yellowing. If the water is not well drained due to the soil type, do I need to dig out the tree to confirm? And see how the root looks? Hope there is some easier way to do it.

At 8pm today, I touched the soil around 5 - 6 inches deep and it's warm. Not sure if it's a sign that the tree is getting burnt.

Cherry trees like sunshine, it just can be hard for them to deal with it all at first.

Just make a temporary cover to filter out some of the sun. It only has to be there for a few months to a year. You can even take it out again next year too if it gets too hot in the summer.

If you had not already planted it, I might have recommended putting it in a large planter and putting it on the East side of your house, or somewhere where it would not get too much sun in the middle of day. Then once it grew a little bit and became more established you could plant it in a sunny spot.

But if you have already planted it, pulling a tree out of the ground usually does more harm than good. The root system is actually very delicate, and it can put the tree into shock, the last thing it needs right now.

Really, the first 8 weeks after planting can be the most difficult, because the roots have not had time to spread into the surrounding soil. No matter how much water you give it, the roots are still going to have trouble supplying all the needed water to make up for evaporative losses in the leaves. The leaves curling up is the plant's natural way of trying to reduce sun exposure when it is feeling water strain.

Congratulations on choosing to plant a cherry tree. Not that many people in California have a cherry tree growing in their yard. It is more popular in Northern States like Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, and Michigan. A lot of times if a plant does not grow "effortlessly" in a climate zone, most people do not bother planting it, even though it could do just fine with just a little proper care.

Hi parker25mv, thanks a lot for all the information!

Unfortunately I have already planted it 3 weeks ago. Indeed before planting the tree, I did let it sit in the planter from nursery for about half month, and it enjoyed staying in the pot. I guess I should have let it stay there and plant it next year.

So for now, I'll definitely go make a tree cover for my poor cherry tree tomorrow.

Yeah actually the reason that I chose to plant the cherry tree is that I moved from Washington to California last year and I'm missing that rainy evergreen state a lot. It's a way for me to remember the place that I've lived and I always wanted to grow a cherry tree back to the days there. Now I realized that planting a cherry tree here can be hard, but still I'd do my best to make it work. :)

This is certainly not the ideal time to plant a tree. Sure it can be done but it takes a lot of babying when you plant a tree in the middle of summer. I think most pros will tell you to plant bare root in the spring and plant potted trees in the late fall when temps are more moderate. I agree you might want to offer the tree a bit of protection of the hot mid day sun.

Thanks speedster1. Yeah I know I made a terrible mistake. I've made a simple cover yesterday for the cherry tree. Hope it will survive this hot summer. Thanks a lot for your input!

Good move! As long as it makes it through this summer alive you will be fine. Don't worry if it doesn't grow any more this year.

Your tree roots are still in the root ball from the container. For this summer the water has to applied to the top of the root ball same as it was in the container. Making some shade would help. If your soil does not drain well, your tree will probably not ever be a success. Al

Thank you all for your help! The problem with my cherry tree was indeed the hot weather here, as you guys have pointed out. After 2 weeks protection with sun shade, it's getting much better now. There were a lot of fallen leaves, but much less these days. As you can see from my new photos, it began to have new buds now. :)

Now I get one more question. This is a 4-in-1 cherry tree that 3 different varieties are grafted in the same tree. Most of the new buds are on the lower part of the main trunk, rather than the branch of each variety, do I need to cut them off? If I leave them keeping growing there, will it take too much nutrition and make the other varieties starving?

Thanks,

Alex

The leaves coming out of those buds do not appear to be typical rootstock variety to me. My guess is that the trunk is one variety of cherry, and then 3 other varieties are in turn grafted onto that. Sour cherry varieties are often not grafted, so if the roots do not appear to be grafted I would not worry. (I would imagine the trunk is most likely to be Black Tartarian or Montmorency, as these tend to be a bit hardier, you never mentioned what the named varieties were on your tree).

I cannot imagine they would have sold a 4-in-1 cherry tree with a trunk that was not an edible cherry variety. In any case, even if it's not, I would not cut off the buds. There is a possibility it could be important for pollination, if one of the edible varieties blooms later than the others.

You can, of course, do a little discretionary pruning if you do not want growth coming out of the central inside area of the tree, because that could eventually result in tangled branches, or if leaves are coming out too close to the ground and you do not want them branching out there. But since you already said your tree was struggling, I think it may be best to leave the leaves alone, at least for now.

Edit: I'm sorry, after rereading your post, I think I misunderstood you. You say the trunk is one of the edible varieties of cherry. I would not worry about one of the varieties sucking away nutrients from the others right now, not until the tree gets much bigger and if it seems one variety of the tree is sucking away growth at the expense of others.

Hi parker25mv, you again! Thanks for the quick reply.

Yeah you are right about the trunk being one variety of cherry. The 4 varieties are: Van, Bing, Lapins and Black Tartarian. The trunks of Lapins and Black Tartarian are relatively thinner comparing to the other two. But I don't quite know yet how to tell which one is the rootstock.

Anyway, I'll just leave them as is, at least not worrying about that this year. :)

It was around 100F for the past week. And my cherry tree is going crazy somehow. It's blossoming now with some flowers, but only on the Lapins trunk.. Just let it be? Hope it's good sign of recovering.