Ornamental Cherry Tree dropping leaves

[Marb67]

Well, every single year my ornamental cherry tree sprouts healthy leaves in early Spring only to go horrible, scabby and mottled before dropping about now. I seem to harbour every pest and disease in my small walled garden but this is a huge pain as the tree was here before we moved in 23 years ago and it has got to a nice size but I think it will have to be replaced for next season as I can't bear to see it go downhill for yet another year.

The tree was planted at ground level but since then I have built raised beds around the trunk about 2.5 ft up. This shouldn't cause any problems so why does it spring up healthy and then go downhill around this time ? If it was diseased surely the leaves would come up in Spring looking scabby, or not at all.

[Marb67]

Sound of tumbleweed.........

[Nicos]

Sorry marb - thanks for bumping this thread.
I can’t answer your problem and I may well be wrong, but my gut feeling would be that most trees would surely have problems if their roots are almost a metre below the soil level? What does the bark look like if you pull some of the soil away ?
That does look like a fungal problem on the leaf.

[Marb67]

The bark is pretty scabby too.

[Nicos]

I think it’s because you have buried the roots too deep Marb, Look at this…..
https://www.nola.com/entertainment_l...te%20and%20die.

[Marb67]

I think it’s because you have buried the roots too deep Marb, Look at this…..
https://www.nola.com/entertainment_l...te%20and%20die.

But if that is the case, it would have died years ago as it does this every year. It wouldn't have the ability to sprout new, healthy leaves in Spring which it still does if it was full of disease.

[Marb67]

Well, the tree as always started out looking great and already
it's dropping g scabby leaves everywhere. It's just awful. 😔

[Nicos]

I still think it’s because the roots are too deep Marb.
Why not take a few leaves in a see through plastic bag to a tree nursery and chat with them. It could be a disease I don’t know about

[Nicos]

Could it be this?
https://www.gardenanswers.com/plant-...y-leaf-spot-3/

[Nicos]

Or, seeing as the trunk is affected …crown rot?

[Marb67]

But if it was desease why would it start out lush and healthy? That's what confuses me.

[Jungle Jane]

Our neighbour has an old tree too,leaves aren’t as bad but they show their age. I just looked up lifespan & found this info-

”Cherry trees typically live for around 20-40 years but the lifespan is entirely dependent on the variety. Ornamental cherry trees have only a short lifespan with many barely making it past 20 years whereas the cultivars more prized for their fruit tend to live for around 30-40 years.”
https://www.primrose.co.uk/blog/gard...ked-questions/

[Mark Rand]

I've had quite a few flowers, leaves and twigs die on my Morello cherry this year. There were a couple of late frosts at just the wrong time. While I'd lit up the paraffin heater in the greenhouse, I hadn't thought about the tree...

It looks like a combination of leaf spot infection on the holed leaves and possibly cold damage at the top?