My Northstar has terrible bacterial diseases, but they look different than yours. Mine does have the clear ooze, which I believe is bacterial. Maybe the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will know the Secret of the OOze? John S PDX OR

Wow. Could I have been more wrong?!?! How embarrassing. At least I can blame it on the beer. :-) Like I said, I don't have any experience with cherries, and I guess I still don't! So, now knowing it is a crabapple, although it's hard to see in the picture, I suppose that could be sooty blotch & flyspec, then right? IÂve now cut one open, and I see the apple seed structure of an apple but, itÂs a solid red throughout unlike most apples which are white (yeah, I know there is a variety or two of regular apples that are solid red) I'm used to crab apples which are more like the size of regular apples... (unless that neighbor I'm thinking of had a real apple tree that he didnÂt take care of and simply called them crab apples). I knew crab apples could be small, but I never thought theyÂd be this small. The stem, size, and color really looked like a cherry to me. But, I guess this explains why they were harder and had no pit. Now that IÂm less nervous about tasting them, they do have an apple texture. Still quite tart, but really, not all that bad... though I think theyÂd taste better earlier in the season. One other piece of info the spring blossoms are white he said he didnÂt think there was any pink in them. Any attempts on which variety of crab this might be. I wonder which type of moth was on them at this time of year? Any idea when theyÂd be ripe for harvest? Thanks again, -Glenn

I think your tree has root rot,

I see a few problems: the spotted leaves are either a persa mite or fungus no a problem but the infected leaves will fall off. you should white wash the entire tree or move it to a shaded area until it starts to recover. how long have you had it were the brown tips there when you bought it? what have you fertilized with? i give even my new trees food. for small trees like yours if watering twice a week where i am its not super hot, i use a liquid b vitamin once a week for first month and make sure the ph of your water is below 7 i treat them like my blueberries and they love it more nutrient uptake. 5.5 - 6.5 is best. there are several ways to lower ph of water. twice a month i water with a dilution of ammonia sulfate which is 21-0-0 (2 tbs to 5 gal bucket of water.) that will push new growth. and once a quarter i add a little organic slow release avocado food, azomite. and i use a flower fert 2-10-10 before bloom time for heavy flowers... i have multiple trees in pots that are 10-15 ft tall and 8 ft wide heavely fruited. so you have to be on a good feeding schedule.