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barplants123

dying trees want to prolong or fell

ok so pictures show a 'tree 1' and 'tree 2'.forgive the cropping,, not the type to post peoples' property online.
I'm told that tree 2 is a kwanzan cherry and that it was grafted from a root ball from another type of cherry tree which was sending out shoots and that one of those shoots was actually transplanted and became tree #1. They're both about 30 years old.
Tree 1 (with small birdhouse) has small sour cherries. Tree 2 is a kwanzan cherry tree with pink flowers.
I read that cherry trees only live about 16-20 years, so I guess that explains how tree 1 is declining, I learned this just before so I guess there's not much hope for it but I'll post this anyway. And tree 2 you can see lots of holes and a crack in the lower trunk which I don't think I can save. Tree 2 is also a bit scraggly and in decline.
Tree 1 doesn't fruit (small sour cherries) as much as it did some years ago, and in recent years have noticed the leaves dying off in the middle of summer (which could be typical leaf scorch from not enough water but I think it's also bacterial leaf scorch: I'm not worried about the lichen on either tree, I read it doesn't cause much problems if any for trees, just want to get that out of the way. "Bacterial leaf scorch looks about the same as environmental at first glance, but has a few distinctions:

  • The disease starts toward the back of branches and gradually makes its way to branch tips.
  • Bacterial leaf scorch comes back year after year, browning more leaves each time. It also usually pops up right around late July or early August.
  • Leaf scorch caused by, say, drought will pop up shortly after the stressful weather.

Nutrient scorch occurs when the tree is deficient of a nutrient vital to its health–usually iron or manganese. Look for brown in-between the veins of the leaves at the tips of the branches." http://blog.davey.com/2017/07/see-burnt-tree-leaves-fix-leaf-scorch-symptoms-with-treatment/
Last year and maybe the year before, I pruned out dead stuff from both trees and cut back to collar a bad larger branch on tree 1. (#1 is curved I think because of a BBQ right next to it BTW). I know that one oval collar cut on #1 looks bad but it was shaped like that and not much else I could do with it.

So anyway, I'm sort of ok with chopping these down and digging out the whole root system and replacing with something else, but do you have any suggestions to prolong these? Or should I just replace them now while I'm motivated to do so in Spring ( I'm already ordering a bunch of other fruit etc trees for this spring anyway).

Basically these trees are similar to this declining apple tree, where he says it should be removed but the older folks are ok with minimal fruiting instead of waiting for a replacement to take its place, and so he basically just thinned out dead stuff is all he could do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2dgRXG1vuk

This is interesting though, I know you sort of can chop a tree down to a stump, and it'll send up suckers and then you can cut out all but the strongest of the suckers and let that grow into a tree (but then it's not anchored into the ground well and can hinge/snap and also the stump will decompose and probably push disease into the new tree, but it's still sort of a back up plan for a tree that should be completely cut down.
With Tree 2, because of the holes and crack in it, I would have to chop it to a stump and pick the best sucker that pops up. I could also then stool AKA mound layer it too though and basically get a free cloned tree from it and then transplant it after the stool/mound has created new roots.
For Tree 1 though, the trunk seems decent below the 3 collar cuts, so maybe I could basically cut it right below those 3 collar cuts and then hope it sends up good quick growth, sort of as shown in the next video, but again, this cherry tree is only supposed to live like 16-20 years and is pushing about 30 already, so it's not really about the problems with these branches and holes and collar cuts, I think it's the root and trunk etc that will prevent it from flourishing for many years even if I did top it at the trunk and wait for new growth , plus not to mention that cutting #1 as a 4' tall trunk would, leave a large flat cut that'll never heal over like a collar cut, and just like cutting a tree down to a stump and waiting for suckers, the new growth will not be anchored well into the large cut through the trunk. This guy does this as a last resort for declining apple tree, he still leaves about 2/3 of the tree though to at least have it keep some leaves to feed the tree until the next year he cuts another large branch out of the crotch area, but with tree #1 shown, it would have to cut all the leaves and branches off and basically look like a telephone pole and then hope for new growth.

https://youtu.be/SMBNw-mBUL8?t=816

I'm actually quite set on just chopping these down and replacing, but looking for any info or tips. thanks.









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