Death of a cherry tree?

[chatlow]

See pic below. More and more leaves have developed brown spots which have eaten the leaves quite badly on a lot of them
Even the fresh ones in left of the pic have started with some spots now.
Any idea what the cause is and more importantly, is there a fix?

Thank you

 

[cpp gardener]

It looks like you might have Shothole fungus. You can spray with copper or lime sulfur. If you spray in the late winter/early spring it will prevent it next year. It usually doesn’t kill the tree but it will weaken it.

 

[Chuck]

I agree with cpp about it being shothole fungus. You can spray now but it is late in the year and the tree will soon drop all of its leaves. The most important thing you can do is to rake up ALL of the debris as it falls from the tree, making sure that there are zero leaves twigs etc on the ground next spring. Next spring spray twice, once at bud swell and again after the tree has leafed out.

 

[chatlow]

thanks both. Gutted to see it affected all these leaves. Should i cut all the bad ones off now or just leave and collect them when they fall? Would this be partly to do with bad soil/compost or just bad luck?

 

[Chuck]

You can cut the affected leaves now but they will soon drop off of the tree without any help. The main way shothole is distributed is by the wind. Also, overhead watering spreads the disease along with unclean tools, insects and birds. It is not that your soil is infected, ALL of the soil is infected to some extent. Just get rid of ALL debris, don't overhead water and spray copper fungicide

 

[chatlow]

thank you very much. Ive been overhead watering all over the summer :-/
Will stop
Will also clear up the soil and some weeds coming through around it