Cherry tree issue

The system wouldn’t allow me to post a direct reply. Something to do with me replying to a post with a link.

To answer you:

There were a lot of dying leaves and the white stuff - I hoped that cutting it all away would solve the issue. That was ten days ago. I’m going to the recycling centre today with the cuttings and have found that the blobs are still on the top of the leaves. Strangely they never appear underneath. I cut one blob open and it’s just white sticky stuff. No sign of insects - I used an old magnifying glass to look.

 

I've posted on your initial thread @Rhapsode *. The blobs look unusual to me, but I don't often interfere with any insects etc on shrubby plants, or trees.

*Sometimes the browser you use makes it difficult on this site. I have to use Firefox, which I don't like at all, but I had a lot of problems when using Chrome, which I use for everything else.

 

I still can’t reply on the initial thread.
I really didn’t have much choice about cutting it back - a great number of leaves were affected with the white blobs and a substantial amount of leaves had withered away. The tree gave every impression it was dying. I started the occasional spray of Westland Fungus Guard about five days ago. There are fewer blobs appearing but some leaves are still turning brown. I think I’ll leave it for a week and see what it does.
Thank you all for you thoughts.

 

Maybe it's just dying, it sounds like it to me, maybe the white areas on the leaves are not really that important.

 

I agree - I still think the white residue is the remains of some insect nest.
If there are no signs of insects, then they've gone elsewhere and the white blobs will disappear in time.
I have scale insects on various shrubs every year.
I see the tiny brown limpet-like cases (which look identical to developing buds on the stems).
I see the white fluffy stuff - but I've never, ever seen a scale insect nymph.

The problem with removing leaves and hard pruning is that without plenty of leaves the plant cannot get enough energy. Plants get a lot of their energy from their leaves. With almost no leaves, the plant can't survive, so will slowly die.

I'd suggest leave it alone, give it a mulch if you can and make sure it doesn't dry out over summer and see how it looks in 3-4 months.

If you can get a pic of the blackened leaves (if they return) may help us.

 

I’ll let you all know in about a week. It should have made its mind up by then as to what it wants to do by then