Cherr tree problems

[coastiefrank]

This shows a lot of black stuff on some of the branches of my cherry tree and the leaves are beginning to curl.  Has anyone any idea what it may be and what I need to do about it.

Regards.

[coastiefrank]

[coastiefrank]

I've done a lot of looking around and I'm pretty sure it's blackfly.

[Jayb]

I noticed some iffy looking leaves on my cherry tree this morning. I haven't had a proper look yet but I'm fairly sure I'll find aphids in the curled leaves. I can't quite make out from your picture if yours are blackfly, but I think it likely if you have lots of little black flies about the same size as greenfly. I try and knock them off with a jet/spray of water from the hosepipe (but not in full sun) not always easy if the leaves are badly curled.

[pigeonseed]

Yes it's hard to tell from the photo but it sounds like blackfly - or aphids and then sooty mold colonising the sugary mess the aphids leave.
I've got terrible cherry trees this year - aphids, cherries rotting before they can ripen (no idea what that is), snails living in there too! I haven't had time to do anything about it.

Squirting or wiping aphids off is fiddly, and it's hard to do and hard not to damage leaves. But I don't know of anything else you can do. Even if you buy a chemical pesticide, you'd have trouble getting into the under side of curled leaves anyway.

I don't know how professional growers do it, I've found cherries a real pain!

[Robert_Brenchley]

I remember similar leaf distortion on a cherry we had outside the back door when I was a kid. It was always smothered in blackfly.