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Project Noah Nature School
Prunus Virginiana
The tree looks very healthy overall. These trees usually grow to about 4-10 m tall and 15cm in diameter. The bark is a fairly smooth with a grey-brown colour. The leaves are green in the spring and turn to a red/brown in the fall. It also has white flowers in the spring and grows dark red or black cherries.
The tree is located right next to the west entrance of the Botanic Gardens. It gets a good amount of sun since there is no building and not many trees giving it any shade. The trees grow best when they have nothing around them to shade them. The tree enjoys a well-drained soil, which would be found where it was in the botanic gardens since it is not in a low spot that would hold water.
On lots of the leaves I spotted what looks to be aphid eggs. Though aphids are not super bad pests if enough start growing there they will infest the tree. There are many ways to control them naturally and chemically. First you should try naturally getting rid of them by spraying a diluted dish soap solution. If that doesn't work resort to using chemicals that are meant to control pests. On the tree I also spotted black knot. If black knot is not taken care of properly it can spread to the rest of the branches and kill the tree. To get rid of it pruning the infected area and disposing of it properly would be your best line of defence of keeping it contained so it doesn't spread. Do the pruning when the tree is dormant anytime between Halloween and March.
Spotted on Oct 14, 2016
Submitted on Oct 15, 2016
1 Comment
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