I moved into this house 4 years ago. an year after the move we converted our grass sideyard to pavers. We have cherry plum tree that we did not alter. For last 3 years or so, it has been giving very less fruit. The branch shoots are vertical and some part of the tree has no leaves. Also the amount of fruit has been reducing every year. I will post pictures tomorrow. I put a small amount of 10-10-10 fertilizer a couple months ago. Also pruned the tree in fall(Some dead branches are still left). Any suggestion/ways to revive this tree?
Not familiar with the variety, but I assume it is a stone fruit (cherries, plums, peaches)
These trees, especially cherry, can get a systemic disease ( fungi or bacteria) that gradually kill the tree and reduce fruit , since it starts in the smaller branches where the fruit is set.
If you maintain the tree by pruning every year, you can limit the spread; once you skip 4 or 5 years, might be too late to prune it out.
Trees stressed by drought can get it worse. I tried to save a large cherry with pruning and slow release liquid fertilizer injected in the soil and it just kept dying back and I removed it after 2 years.
One sign of the disease is “ gumosis”, or reddish or whitish lumps of sticky resin like stuff coming through the bark. Once this is happening on wood over 2 in. In diameter all over the tree, probably a removal.
If you get a sample to a plant disease lab, you might get it identified and there might be a treatment, but probably not worth doing if tree is heavily damaged.
