To sum it up very simply: cultivariance influenced mainly from the origin or place point of where scionwood is collected from a tree. rootstock - Embo suggests an excellent point about clonal rootstock environmental factors such as sun, soil, water or lack of, shade; man made factors: fertilizer; spacing; growing in containers or growing in-ground. another environmental factor: climate(s) - where grown; where planted. Typically, however, since clonal rootstocks are not the norm unless it's BIG BUSINESS - a propagator removes/culls the weakest seedlings and uses only the strongest rootstocks /seedlings. I'm sure there's more to add that isn't coming readily to me, but all the points above and a few I may of added, are determinate to propagating clonal stock. Of course poor roots to begin with is a major situation, problem. From beginning to end product----it all adds up. Cuttings scionwood is a learned technique. Water shoots are the most preferred, or, erect shoots on branches. Sometimes neither of these are present so the next source is a shoot tip. Cutting a tip of a long branch of tree requires however that the collector of the wood knows what he/she is doing. Just to cut and not pay attention to the bud placement behind a cut is a major no-no. A person needs to examine that branch tip prior to removal to ensure that buds behind are "LINED UP" to continue the natural growth habit of the tree they are taking wood from. And this is just the beginning. Often 2-3 year old wood is preferred (2 years growth = wood a tree produced two years prior to the new tip growth & 3 is three years ago wood that was produced by a tree.) Caliper of scion and rootstock should be met if at all possible, equally. A less wide scion may however be grafted to a rootstock with a larger diameter - just not vice versa. I like using 2-3 year wood because the inside of the wood is more mature. The central pith is encapsulated fully - which is what you want for grafting. And I like to graft 3 buds from a piece of a stick or 4 to my seedling. You will always have a strongest growth point and often too a few buds may be strong / upright. I'll clip one back to a couple buds and allow a strong shoot to become my new tree. I tell ya, there's a lot to this. My examples are not perfect, but at least you now have an idea that 2 and 3 year old wood is better than 1-year/current growth. Dax

Read too much moisture as in rain could be culprit. ..... Have cherry in back that had huge harvest in June. Will need to treat it with something as per caution. ==>>> not really .... in tree time ... this thing has been dying for many years .. improper pruning.. huge gaping wounds.. etc ... perhaps even improper planting.. if it was severely pot bound.. and just dropped in the ground .... the rain may have put it over the top ... on the path to death ... but it wasnt the cause of its eventual decline ... in no way.. would i equate this problem.. with anything going on in the backyard .. and i would not suggest you prophylactically start spraying that tree .. simply because of THIS tree ... there is a fruit forum ... and those peeps have all kinds of spray protocols ... but again.. they dont do it.. because of some tree in front of the house ... ken

My favorite fruiting tree is Meyer lemon, mainly because I use more lemons than any other fruit. It is difficult to pick just one. The fig trees from Texas that I had in Venice produced the sweetest fruit of any fruit tree that I've had, but the season is not that long, and it got hot in the kitchen when I made fig preserves, which I mostly gave away. I also love my blood orange tree and cherimoya. Favorite non-fruiting tree is Ceiba speciosa (Silk floss tree), which makes beautiful pink flowers in the fall and has a very interesting spiked trunk.

One of the various fungal agents collectively known as maple anthracnose. It is generally not a serious issue, more cosmetic than actually harmful......and it can fluctuate from year to year with weather conditions. And once you see visible signs of the problem, it is too late to treat anyway. But it is best to rake up and destroy or fully compost all the leaves in fall. Don't just use them as is as a mulch as the fungal spores can winter over.