REALLY strange cherry tree disease?

[oldred]

I have a 20 year old Montmorency cherry tree that has been very healthy and productive until this year, the first sign of a problem was when it went into almost full blossom in October last fall! At that time I also had a few blossoms on my apple trees so I just wrote it off as due to odd weather since we did have a very early cold spell followed by weeks of warm weather. So now I went out to do my spring pruning and I was shocked to find the cherry tree grossly overgrown with what seems like millions of new shoots on the limbs, well of course not that many but as thick as they have grown it seems that way. Not only that but most of them are dead and dried out as are some of the larger branches and on a lot of them is a strange needle like growth on the bark, much more so at the bases of the limbs than the outermost parts. There is no help for this tree, it's a goner and tomorrow I am going to cut and burn it and the area all around it hopefully eliminating this scrounge. We really loved our pie cherries and this tree provided all we could use and more but it was the only one we had and now I have to start over, anyone ever seen such a thing? If this is some new blight that has moved in like the Brown Rot that showed up about 15 years ago I will not even bother replanting a new tree, Brown Rot moved into this area and now it's impossible to grow peaches and plums anymore so I have long since removed those trees but I sure would hate to lose our cherries to a new blight!

[1911sw45]

Sometimes when there's been a long drought the tree will go dormant and when you get the rains in fall it will wake up and bloom. A couple of years ago my cherry trees did the same thing with half to three quarters of the tree just died over winter. We had some pretty cold weather and cold winds that we normally don't have. So I chalk it up to winter kill. Just cut the dead wood and retrained the trees. Mine have lightly bloomed in the fall too.

[gwpercle]

I would talk to the local Cooperative Extension Service Agent before doing anything. Around here they are located at Louisiana State University, you can bring them samples or by setting up an appointment they will visit your tree and advise as to best course of action.
I always like to find out just what is going on. My Dad , on the other hand, would cut a tree down if it just looked sick or had an unproductive year.....I don't know why he was like that but he cut down and replanted more trees than you could shake a stick at.
Gary

[mold maker]

We experiences a rather unusual Winter. The fruit trees can be expected to react likewise. Check with those educated in this field before doing anything rash. Your favorite cherry tree may just be over reacting, but you shouldn't do the same.

[oldred]

I'm sure this tree is a loss, it is grossly distorted with all those small shoots growing all over the limbs in every direction. This thing is actually scary to look at and I'm reasonably sure it's caused by a fungal infection of some type but anyway I went back out and looked it over again since making this post and I am sure there's no saving it. There is an employee at the farmers Co-Op who also grows fruit trees on a semi-commercial scale and he has a reputation as the go-to guy for growing problems, he has a degree from UT so this fellow speaks with real knowledge but the trick is catching him there since he stays on the road a lot.