I’ve got a young Prunus cerasifera 'Princess' tree that I planted in the spring, it’s been thriving with new growth etc but I’ve noticed a lot of the leaves look like this.
Can anyone advised what maybe causing this please? TIA.
Located in the UK.
by Deanicuss
2 Comments
I used to work at a plant pest diagnostics lab. That looks like “shot hole” which is a generic term to describe scattered spots of dead tissue on prunus leaves. Lots of prunus species are susceptible. But at the end of the day I don’t know. Internet diagnostics are hard which is why finding plant-intelligent people with experience you trust to give you real-time diagnoses is unparalleled. Go find such a person, maybe your local garden center has one or two.
In the meantime you can do your own research. Google “prunus shothole” but, please do yourself a favor, and stick to reputable sources such as University websites. A good way to filter for such pages is to include a “.edu” in the google search. So, Google “prunus shothole .edu.” The difference is such articles would be based on research and industry experts vs. a garden blog (or Reddit) where anyone can say anything without fact checking.
That being said I could be wrong. I’m not sure what else it could be, tho. The fact that you can see the inception of the holes (off color spots with a dead center and eventually the whole target area falls out leaving a hole) is pretty indicative of a pathogen rather than an insect.
Yup, shot hole. I spray for it regularly. Typically a minor fungal issue, but in prolonged wet periods it can get pretty bad.