Organic garden Dwarf North Star Cherry tree

Question

Was fruiting tiny cherries with nice lush green leaves. Happy sitting in wood chip mulch from Mulberry tree with chickity-doo-doo fertilizer and cow compost, but the rain was a lot this season not dry like the last two years. We did get a few big high winds where our dwarf Pink Lady apple tree had dropped her apples, like June drop, but there are few apples that may make it. But the cherry tree began to really fruit, then her leaves drop downward and just turn brown. Will our cherry tree still survive or die? And what about June drop? Will the tree grow more apples in time for harvest? Please email ASAP. Thanks.

PS: the apple is a zone 6 but doing OK so far in the wood chips. The cherry zone 5 but we live in zone 5.

Answer 1

You mention extra rain, and you mention mulch. That made me wonder if your trees may be suffering from too much moisture around the roots. Why don’t you try raking the mulch back from the trees — beyond the drip line I would think — and see if that helps the wilting and browning leaves. Regarding the apple tree, it’s not unknown for stress to initiate a second flowering, but I doubt if in your zone there would be enough time for fruit to ripen before frost. You don’t mention how old these trees are. Young trees sometimes take a few years to get the hang of things, that might also be part of what’s going on.