Dear friends,
Most people who follow me know I enjoy sharing photos of my bonsai trees once in a while. Welcome to my backyard. I, 
Today I am sharing the growing developments on my cherry tree.
Way back in February the buds on this tree were already swollen green. By April the tree had already fully leafed out. It was a very wet month followed my a month of early heat in May.
Unfortunately this led to a disastrous condition for my two bonsai cherry trees to become diseased. They both started to bleed a rusty sap from the bud joints. Much dieback on the branches occurred, and many leaves wilted and turned yellow. Not sure what to do, I moved them to the shade, and carefully removed the training wires. I pruned anything seriously infected off and rinsed off the watery rust coating from the bark. One of the two Cherry trees did not survive.
I am not certain why this happened. It could have been the ice storm we had in late February that injured the green flesh of the trees. As I understand, many cherry trees across the US are dying of disease spread over recent years, so consider yourself lucky if you still have any.
In late May I had been ushering the remaining tree back to heath by letting it grow under the shade. This also allowed it to be watered less frequently, and probably helped it to recover from any rot problems caused by heat and moisture.
One my other theories on what can cause a tree like this to become diseased is if the tissue is too swollen with hot moisture (we had an unusually hot Spring) from daily watering and direct heat. If the tree cannot adapt to the temperature changes fast enough by thickening the green stems with bark, the plant tissue can pop open, and bleed out, allowing for infection deep into the tree, such as bacteria, insects, and fungi.
New green leaves have pushed out to replace the ones from early Spring that had died away.
Looking at it, I felt this was a good day to finally prune the tree without risk of causing further bleed damage. So I snipped off all the blackened branch tips and plucked off the dead leaves.
Here is the resulting tree form. It still has the curvaceous design of the main branches. Leaves are clustered more tightly near the main trunk, rather than stretching out so far away, which I prefer. The old wire scar on the front gives the tree a gnarled, aged appearance.
Historical Information
ID: 0031
Nickname: George Washington (Tree of Truth)
Type: Cherry
Age: 4 years
Grown: cutting from branch
Last repotting: March 29, 2020
Wired: Approx. April 15, 2019
Past articles featuring this tree:
- Cherry Tree: Spring Trim, Adding Symbolism
- Cherry Tree: Spring Replanting and Root Pruning
- Growing a Cherry Tree
- Cherry Tree: A New Groove
Post Beneficiaries:
- 1%
@mendezand
- 1%
@cryptopie
This is my way of thanking each of you for your friendship and support. By sharing my talents on Hive, I can also share to help with your needs.
Let my success also grant you some happiness too.
Photos in this post are all #originalworks by
Find me on discord and chat with other tree growers, bonsai enthusiasts, and gardeners.
@hive-193614No memberships. Love trees. Make friends. Grow together.