cut all the dead wood out now to your lowest living bud. I put tangle foot on landscaping tape about two foot up on the trunk. That will keep the ants of the tree if there isn't any bridges like twine to steaks or other tree branches or such. The ants are protectors to the aphids because they like to eat the aphid honey doo. Without ants the ladybugs will eat them, and so will other good bugs. You need to figure out what kind of spray program you need. You should be spraying for fungus and bacterial canker at least a couple times a year. Best when applied right away after wet periods. Bacterial canker thrives in the warm moisture. You may have it already and that will cause die off on top too. look for split trunks and branches that have cracks. It might just be areas that look like sap is oozing out like bores. Fruit trees need to be taken care of in every season. I would mix up some water salable fertilizer and feed it now, but don't over feed it. Then mix in some 12 12 12 into the drip line of the trees on the ground. You need to get all that grass away from the drip lines and put some good mulch down. Mix the fertilizer into the mulch. Look up how to fertilize fruit trees on u tube. There is a formula that goes by trunk thickness. You know if your trees need to be fertilized by how long last years growth is. That's in those videos too. I watched every video I could find to figure out how to take care of my trees plus reading this forum. Its so much easier to watch someone.

There are several methods to propagate this tree. You can air-layer, take softwood cuttings, hardwood cuttings, etc or graft/bud the tree. Probably the best propagation method is one of the various grafting techniques. Locate some good rootstock that does well in your area, do a little research on how to graft/bud, and have fun with it. Be forewarned, though, you may become "hooked" and want to propagate as many trees as you can, just because you can....

Black ice hasn't been out that long. Toka may probably pollinate it but not as good as a pure plum will black ice is a cross between sand cherry and sandcherry is a real good pollinator of chums . Toka is a hybrid ,hybrids do not pollinate other hybrids that well studies have been done but there are many different hybrids that may work well with others and not so with many .believe me I have a bunch in my yard and never got fruit set and listened to all those places like fedco and other nurseries recommendations and never got a single plum .this year I added a native plum and low and behold I have fruit set on my trees . I will listen to a garden center or nursery recommendation on pollinators when they show me a picture of a tree with fruits fedco shows 4 black plums that are most not even black ice plums in the stock photo . Toka is not high on people's list because it doesn't produce heavy crops. The plums are known as bubblegum plum and are great tasting to many people. They are not massive fruits and heavy bearing trees but are extremely tough trees and are a lot more resilient than Santa rosa or those other precious jap plums. Toka was designed as a hardy plum but gained popularity because of the nick name and how hardy it was and said to be a great pollinator . Now it's sold in big box stores all over North America even in places that are rated zone 2. I have not found one study online claiming that toka is actually proven .most plum orchards will have pollinator trees and from what I've read they usually use a native plum for hybrid varieties. Black ice and toka are not jap plums and black ice is to new for somebody to start shooting out nonsense about.

It does look a lot like leaf spot. At this time of year, nothing you can spray will have any effect. And the tree will be dropping all its leaves soon enough anyway :-) The fungal spores can overwinter on fallen leaves so cleaning them up (be very thorough) and destroying (not composting) should go a long way in preventing recurrence next season. And I'd suggest you read up on this pathogen so you are aware of the conditions that encourage its development (wet springs/summers). Chlorothalonil (Daconil) is a recommended fungicide for this problem. Spray just as leaf buds start to unfurl and again two weeks after flowering. Cherry Leaf Spot Fact Sheet