Yoshino Flowering Cherry Tree - HELP!

[Alexandrea Borges]

Happy Friday!!

I live in Jacksonville, FL and I recently planted 4 new trees in my back yard. All are doing really well with the exception of our yoshino cherry tree. As soon as I got it in the ground, the leaves started turning red and dropping. I’ve been watering it daily, in addition to the usual daily summer rains we get here. I’m at a loss as to what to do. It doesn’t look diseased and it gets a fair amount of shade and direct sunlight. Is there any advice you can give me? It looks like some new branches are growing, but no leaves. Is this part of the normal life cycle? Am I just a nervous nelly? Haha!

Thank you in advance!

AB

 

[Marck]

Greetings, welcome to the Forums.

A Yoshino Cherry (Prunus x yedoensis) does want regular soil moisture, but also good drainage. With daily rain, you should not be performing any additional irrigation. If you go a week without rain then give the sapling a deep watering, but only once a week at most. Remove any falleen leaves and disopose of them. Do this in the Fall as well. Hopefully, if you keep the tree alive during this first season of establishment, tt will do better next year. Next year you should water it even less frequently and only during extended dry spells. Also mulch around the tree with both compost and woodchips. Form a circle about three feet across. There is no benefit in letting grass grow right up to the trunk of a young sapling.