This tree was planted around 1 year ago by the developers of my new build house. I largely left it alone all of last year except for watering it regularly, the nursery stake was left in it as well (I didn't know anything about tree care). I'm in South Coastal UK so we get quite a lot of wind.
A couple of months ago I decided to look into gardening more and I really want to make the best effort with this tree but there are a few concerning things about it and I'm worried that it's not doing very well. As you can see I'm new to this so any advice is appreciated, please be nice!
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I removed the nursery stake a few weeks ago after reading that they shouldn't be staked for more than a year after planting. I left it without anything to see how it would cope, but we've had some stronger winds in the last few days and it has been fully bending onto the cherry next to it (the branches got tangled with each other), so I have now staked it again, hopefully this looks better?
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The developers obviously planted it quite deeply, I have hopefully exposed the root flare a bit better now and am trying to keep mulch away from the trunk but it is below the surrounding mulch level, I'm not sure what I can really do about that but maybe it's better now?
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There are some not very nice looking areas towards the bottom of the main trunk, I think picture 4 and 5 are from where it was up against the nursery stake but I'm not sure about picture 3. Is this a canker?
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I have had what I think are woolly aphids (pics 3 and 5 you can see the white), I have tried to wipe them away but there still residue left, not sure if this is an issue still.
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I have also had lots of caterpillar eggs and baby caterpillars which have been webbing up entire leaves and making them brown. I've just cut off the affected leaves and branches which I imagine isn't ideal but wasn't sure what else to do? I've also cut off all the fruit because I read this was what you should do the first time while it's still growing.
TLDR: mistakes were made, please help me give this tree the best chance!
by Clozapinata
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