As many of you know Kansas is a very high disease pressure area. We have just about every disease possible that will show up within a week to a month of not spraying which is why you don’t hear of Kansas as being a fruit growing area. Stone fruits are nearly impossible to grow in my area. Cherry Leaf spot aka the fungus Blumeriella jaapii showed up since I had not sprayed my sour cherries since harvest which was about a month ago. So I checked the cherries a week ago and then I noticed one of them looked like this yesterday
I realize it does not seem like a catastrophic illness but believe it or not it can be. I likely missed the initial spot on the cherry that is the tip off it’s time to spray. You can’t really spray all the time because it will overspray other fruits ripening in the area so sometimes you have to monitor and wait to spray. Leaf spot makes your cherries susceptible to winter kill and it reduces your cherry crop the next year if you don’t catch it in time. Remember the photo was what occurred within a week. I applied immunox / captan mixed with malathion / triazicide last night to all the cherries. I have seen a host of minor pests and major ones such as web worms , Japanese beetles, etc. in the area. Since I had to spray I must do it all at once because I have grapes in the area ripening which are likely 3 weeks away from being ripe so I won’t get a second chance for 4-5 weeks probably. I will follow up with a second spray next week because I need to. This article gives a few ideas about this fungus but does not say everything http://www.caf.wvu.edu/kearneysville/disease_descriptions/omchlfsp.html. The next step is to clean up the leaf litter that falls around that bush and get rid of it by burning it because that is the source of infection for next year
Here are some other photos to help you identify Blumeriella jaapii
In case your wondering what my plan is if I cant get the fungus cleared up before the grape harvest I will switch to being an organic orchardist for a few weeks and spray serenade https://www.amazon.com/Serenade-Concentrate-Garden-Disease-Control/dp/B000VHFSUO/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1468680939&sr=8-5&keywords=serenade