frost damage fruit tree branch

[Sarico]

hi this morning i tought to take the fleece off my dwarf fruit tree and check how they are... i-ve notice that my cherry tree have a lot of buds that are nice big and green but some of them on the end of the branch are very small and look like they are dried... is only a small tree that i bought last october so has only 3 branches and all of them the last 10 15 cm have that problem... do you think that is due to frost damage? if yes is better to prune them and if prune how much?
thanks for the help

[FB.]

Can you show a picture?

It might be frost damage, but it might also be canker or silverleaf, which can also cause die-back.

However, it may well be that wood of different ages tends to produce different types of buds.
Often, two-year-old wood has the large blossom buds, which open first.
The one-year-old (previous season's growth) usually has smaller buds which open later and will produce leaves.

If the ends of the shoots are dead, they may look a bit shrivelled, or may be brittle (do they bend, or do they snap? - if they bend they're probably alive).

Prune off any dead bits, well back into healthy wood. Prune just as the tree is swelling buds in spring (sometime around now, or very soon).

[Sarico]

Can you show a picture?

It might be frost damage, but it might also be canker or silverleaf, which can also cause die-back.

However, it may well be that wood of different ages tends to produce different types of buds.
Often, two-year-old wood has the large blossom buds, which open first.
The one-year-old (previous season's growth) usually has smaller buds which open later and will produce leaves.

If the ends of the shoots are dead, they may look a bit shrivelled, or may be brittle (do they bend, or do they snap? - if they bend they're probably alive).

Prune off any dead bits, well back into healthy wood. Prune just as the tree is swelling buds in spring (sometime around now, or very soon).

i just make a picture and as you can see the bottom buds are nice but the top aren't.... i try to bent the last inch of the branch and it snap and was brown inside....
i hope is not something bad....

[FB.]

From the picture, the ends of the branches look a bit off-coloured and a bit wrinkled.

As a precaution, I would prune back the affected branches in the next few days.
I would cut back well into healthy wood as if it is a disease it may already be moving along the stem but not yet killed some of the other buds.
So I'd make sure of cutting it all out by cutting off at least one, preferably two healthy buds along with the dead bit.

As it happens, your plant looks a bit straggly and unbranched anyway, so pruning-back the long branches by half would both get rid of the dead bits and encourage additional side-branching.

Do not fear late winter/early spring pruning; most of the plant's reserves are safely stored in the roots.
However, stone fruits are best if not pruned when fully dormant due to risk of disease. Now that the buds are swelling the tree is clearly not dormant.

Summer pruning is used to stop growth of an over-vigorous tree, but should never be used on a weak tree, nor a very old tree which lacks vigour because they just can't take the stress of the loss of sunlight-gathering ability.

[Sarico]

ok so i will prune now with a couple of green buds... i hope is not bad becuase i only plant in october or november... this cherry tree as only 3 branches and i hope it will get more soon... i hate rented house because you can only plant in pots... do you think that been in pot may cause the problem? is a dwarf tree in m27 rootstock... thanks for your help FB

[FB.]

Your opening post mentioned a cherry tree, but you've just mentioned rootstock M27, which is apple.

There is a brief summary of rootstocks here:
> Link <

Back to your tree with dead tips on the branches: I think that it probably is frost damage and I don't think that it will die, but I suggest not taking a risk, so cut back the branches by half their length, to make sure that if it is an infection (canker or silverleaf) that infected wood which isn't yet showing symptoms is also removed.

As I said earlier: cutting back the branches by half will also encourage the plant to produce some more side branches. Pruning should also add vigour to the tree because there will be lots of roots supplying nutrients to only half the amount of branches.

If the tree is only in garden soil it will not thrive. Hopefully the soil in the pot is a mix of about 75% compost with 25% garden soil and hopefully it will be regularly fed.

The following topic also discussed a bit about fertilisers:
> Link <

[Sarico]

sorry i made a mistake.... i just check infact my apple tree are m27.. i bought all of them from j parker and i remember m27 but is just for the apple... silly me... i prune the tree as you said half way... i did't use garden soil but a multipurpose compost with john innes 2... i hope is that ok... if is not do you think is better change the compost?... thanks

[FB.]

If they are in compost, they'll be fine.
Just prune them.