Apricot vs Sweet cherry

In Central Europe the crop is most often lost to spring frost: the tree flowers early, blossom and fruitlets are damaged at just 1 to 2 °C below zero, and hard frost returning after mild winter days also harms buds and shoots. The other major problem is apoplexy, when a branch or the whole tree dies suddenly in midsummer; it results from several pathogens combined with stress (frost, winter pruning, wounds, waterlogging) and cannot be cured with sprays. So never prune an apricot in winter: do it at the red-bud stage or after harvest in late summer, in dry weather, and seal the cuts. In cool, wet weather at flowering Monilia blossom blight kills flowers and shoots, so spray at the start and end of flowering and cut diseased shoots back to healthy wood. Gummosis, shot hole, leaf spot, plum pox virus (marked fruit and stones), peach twig borer and oriental fruit moth are also common. Overall a demanding tree: it needs regular preventive spraying and careful summer pruning, and can still be shorter-lived than other fruit trees.

In Central Europe the main nuisance is cherry fruit fly: the European species has been joined by the later-flying eastern cherry fruit fly, and the maggots spoil the fruit of mid-season and late varieties, while early varieties mostly escape. In wet springs Monilia kills blossoms and shoots and rots the ripening fruit; cherry leaf spot, bacterial canker and gumming also occur. Rain before harvest splits the fruit, and starlings and blackbirds can strip a tree in days, with large trees almost impossible to net. Because it flowers early, spring frost often takes the crop, and the tree does not tolerate waterlogged soil. Prune in summer after harvest, as winter wounds are easily infected.