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Cherry leaves turn yellow not only during leaf fall, sometimes it happens in summer or even spring. To understand what happens to cherries, you need to investigate the possible causes of yellowing.
When cherry leaves turn yellow in autumn
Yellow foliage is a natural sign that a plant is out of its active growing season and is preparing to go dormant. The timing of the cherry's yellowing depends on the region and weather conditions. But in general, the leaves of the tree change their color in early or mid-October, after a steady drop in temperature.
Sometimes gardeners are faced with the fact that the tree begins to turn yellow much ahead of schedule - in July, August, or even in the midst of spring. If the leaves change color, this indicates that the fruit tree is unwell.
The yellowing of the crown can come much earlier.
The main reasons why cherry leaves turn yellow in summer
There are quite a few reasons for premature yellowing of the crown. Sometimes the foliage turns yellow due to violations of agrotechnical rules, in other cases, an unpleasant phenomenon is caused by fungal diseases. If cherry leaves turn yellow and dry, then the most common reasons deserve more detailed consideration.
Lack of nutrients
The tree retains the green color of the leaves only if the process of natural photosynthesis proceeds without interference. It can be disturbed not only due to cold weather and lack of light, as occurs in autumn, but also due to a lack of nutrients in the soil.
It often happens that the leaves turn yellow due to a lack of iron in the soil. Photosynthesis from this is disrupted, the leaves begin to gradually acquire a yellow color, and then completely fall off.
Cherry leaves turn yellow in June when there is insufficient nitrogen in the soil. Mosaic color becomes a characteristic symptom - green leaf plates first become pale, then brighten, and then gradually acquire a yellow tint.
If the leaves turn yellow from the lower branches, and the yellowness gradually rises higher, this may indicate a lack of magnesium.
With a phosphorus deficiency, leaf plates can become not only yellow, cherry leaves turn red and fall off, or acquire a bronze tint. Lack of potassium is expressed in the fact that the leaves turn yellow, but they have a red border around the edges.
With an imbalance of nutrients, the foliage of fruit plants turns yellow, reddens and curls
Waterlogging of the soil
The leaves of the tree can turn yellow not only due to drought, but also against the background of boggy. If groundwater passes near the roots of a fruit tree, or the gardener often waters the cherry unnecessarily, too much moisture accumulates in the soil.This leads to chlorosis, an ailment in which the leaves change their color.
A characteristic feature of chlorosis is that the tree turns yellow from the top, and gradually yellowness captures the leaves at the bottom of the tree. For treatment, the plant must be treated with 2% iron sulfate, as well as revise the irrigation schedule or completely transplant the cherries.
Excess moisture leads to rotting of the roots and yellowing of the crown
Diseases
Fungal ailments also lead to a change in the color of the leaves of the tree. Most often, yellowing occurs due to several diseases:
- Coccomycosis. Infection with fungal spores occurs in late autumn or winter, but symptoms of the disease appear only the next year. Cherry leaves turn yellow in July or even early summer, while acquiring a characteristic brownish tint.
- Moniliosis. Another common ailment of cherries also leads to yellowing of the leaves, and then to premature leaf fall. Infection with moniliosis usually occurs due to harmful insects - moths and caterpillars. If the spores of moniliosis begin to spread throughout the plant, then at first the individual leaves on the cherry turn yellow and twist, and then the entire crown takes on a burnt appearance and falls off.
- Clasterosporium disease. The fungus of this disease usually develops in conditions of waterlogging, manifests itself in late spring and early summer. You can recognize clotterosporium disease by the fact that when a cherry is ill, the leaves turn yellow and fall off, before that they are covered with small through holes.
If the crown has turned yellow due to fungal ailments, then the tree must be urgently treated with fungicidal preparations, and then all affected parts must be removed and destroyed.
Causes of yellowing of cherry leaves in some cases
In some cases, yellowing is caused by specific causes that are specific to particular conditions or varieties of wood. Knowing about these causes makes it easier to determine the cause of the problem.
Why did the cherry leaves turn yellow after transplantation?
Almost immediately after planting a tree in the garden, amateurs often encounter a yellowing of the crown of the seedling. In such cases, it is customary to say that the plant "did not take root", however, the true reasons for the loss of the crown are quite specific.
Damage to the root can cause yellowing of the leaf blades of the seedling. If the transplant was carried out inaccurately, and the main root broke or cracked, then the power system after that was severely disrupted. A seedling with broken roots cannot receive nutrients in the required amounts and therefore begins to turn yellow and dry.
Also, yellowing of foliage can be caused by a lack of zinc or iron in the soil - since during transplanting the seedling gets into unusual conditions, the health of the tree can be shaken. Often, after planting in the ground, cherries turn yellow and dry out on soils with a high lime content.
Cherry seedlings turn yellow and die due to root damage and a lack of nutrients
Why do young cherry leaves turn yellow?
Young trees that have just entered the fruiting period may turn yellow for the following reasons:
- cracking of the trunk - if the winter turned out to be too cold, and the tree was not covered, the cherry could freeze severely up to gum leakage from the bark and damage to vital systems;
- too alkaline soil - young cherries do not grow well on the soil with an excess of chalk or lime, since in such conditions the production of chlorophyll is disrupted.
The yellowing of young cherries can be associated with frost, alkalization of the soil or disease
If the leaves of the cherry in July are yellow and fall off, the cause may be bacterial cancer, especially young trees suffer from it.When damaged by bacterial cancer, not only the leaves on the cherry turn yellow and curl, but ulcers appear on the bark, and the fruits are deformed.
Why do felt cherry leaves turn yellow?
Felt cherry foliage can turn yellow due to all of the reasons listed above. But there are additional reasons characteristic of this type of fruit tree:
- Felt cherry is characterized by a very vigorous growth and rapid growth of young shoots. Leaves on its crown can turn yellow after the roots freeze in cold and little snow winters. In this case, the tree becomes simply unable to supply its own green mass with nutrients and gets rid of the foliage.
- Felt cherries can turn yellow and fall off due to drought. A severe lack of moisture damages the plant in the same way as an excess of water, especially when you consider that the felt variety consumes more nutrients.
Felt cherry trees suffer from drought and freezing of roots
Before looking for signs of fungal ailments on the leaves of a fruit shrub, it is worth analyzing the care of cherries, and, perhaps, the cause of yellowing will become clear immediately.
What to do if cherry leaves turn yellow and fall off
The first step in case of premature yellowing is to determine the cause of the unpleasant situation. Once the source of the problem is found, the gardener will have to take action. If cherry leaves fall off in summer, you need to do the following:
- In case of infection with fungal diseases, cherries must be urgently subjected to a sanitary haircut. All shoots with yellowed leaves must be removed, and healthy parts must be treated with Bordeaux liquid or proven fungicides, for example, Horus, Polyram or Topsin.
- If the soil lacks nutrients, you need to add fertilizing - nitrogen, potassium or phosphorus. When the soil is alkalized, the trunk circle is treated with gypsum, iron vitriol or organic fertilizers, and alfalfa or mustard can also be sown near cherries.
- If cherry leaves turn yellow in August against the background of improper watering, you need to increase the flow of moisture or, conversely, reduce unnecessary watering. The most difficult solution to the problem is if the cherry grows in a lowland on swampy soil, in such cases it only remains to move it to a new place.
If the crown turns yellow, the fruit tree can still be saved
The main reasons why cherries turn yellow
If the leaves turn yellow, and also turn red and fall on the cherry in the summer, then the troubles do not always end there. The fruits of the cherry tree can also turn yellow - during the ripening period they do not acquire a normal dark color, but remain pale and watery, and then begin to rot. This is usually caused by several reasons:
- lack of minerals - nitrogen, potassium or phosphorus, with a deficiency of which the cherry simply cannot accumulate sufficient strength for normal fruiting;
- coccomycosis and moniliosis, ailments affect not only leaf plates, but also ripening berries, which turn pale and begin to rot;
- pests of cherries, in particular, cherry fly and weevil, eating away the pulp of the fruit from the inside.
If the fruits have turned yellow, then it will not be possible to save them, it is necessary to fight for the whole tree
In all cases, yellowing of the fruit can be fought, the main thing is to notice the problem in time.
What to do if cherries turn yellow
The fight against yellowing of fruits comes down to several therapeutic measures:
- First of all, the tree is treated for fungal ailments, ideally this should be done prophylactically, without waiting for problems to appear. Bordeaux liquid or Hom is suitable for spraying.
- Also, the tree is sprayed from pests - insecticides Spark, Lightning and Karate work well.
- The plant is fed with minerals - to strengthen the ovary, it is especially useful to spray the cherries with urea and add potassium to the near-stem circle.
The gardener needs to understand that if the fruits have turned yellow, then they cannot be saved. Most likely, this year's harvest will die or be very small, but next year the tree will bear fruit in full.
Fungicidal and insecticidal treatments can prevent yellowing of fruits.
Prevention measures
Preventing yellowing of tree leaves is quite simple. To do this, you need to follow a few rules:
- plant a crop in a well-lit place and away from groundwater in the area;
- do not overdo it with watering, but also do not let the tree dry out;
- fertilize on time, feed the fruit tree at least three times per season;
- timely remove organic residues from the site - foliage, fallen fruits and other debris, as well as annually carry out sanitary pruning;
- every spring and summer, sprinkle cherries from fungi and insects as a preventive measure.
Conclusion
Cherry leaves turn yellow not only from disease. the reason may be a lack of minerals or an incorrect watering regime. Good agricultural practices when growing cherries are of great importance; gardeners should not neglect fertilizing and spraying cherries.
