please help my cherry tree

[littleexperience]

hello i have a 6ft sunburst cherry tree which is 4 years old and last year i got my first crop of delicious fruit.but after inspecting it the other day i noticed some sort of pink fungus spots which was growing on the very top of the main trunk which spread down about 5inch after further investigation on my fruit expert book and the internet i identified it as coral spot but i dont no the best action to take it said in my book and the internet to prune away this fungus about 15inch below the fungus and seal with arbrex but im aware you are not supposed to prune cherry trees or plum trees till summer im scared in case it spreads further down the trunk to where the branches start coming out from. so if someone with more experiance with this fungus can please help me out thanks

[sarraceniac]

Hi littleexperience and welcome to the vine. Coral spot develops when the wood is already dead so where you see it, it can safely be cut off at any time, in fact the sooner, the better. Just as worrying is what caused the top of the tree to die in the first place. Any other symptoms? If not then do continue to watch after the coral has been removed. It is faintly possible that the recent, horrifically cold weather got to it. It is rare, but it is possible.

[littleexperience]

thanks for your help sarraceniac i will prune away the dead wood at the weekend i suspect this happened dew to the weather this year we had over a foot of snow lying from mid december to mid january and temps between -10-18c for a whole month even during the day it was -6c this week alone 2 nights solid its been -7c poor little thing having this sort of weather to put up with