about 2 weeks ago (mid-spring) for the 2nd year running the cherry leaves are starting to show holes. they start as tiny depressions or bumps less than 0.5 mm, with just slight brown discoloration. initially just a few. now they’ve turned into many more holes, which are growing larger, and irregular in shape. i was thinking shot hole but, that’s supposed to have market discoloration. see photo http://members.optusnet.com.au/~chriswww/DSC_0243.jpg
the holes are not too far away from the main vein. i can’t detect any sign of life in these holes/lesions with microscope.
i applied burgundy spray to all fruit trees this winter, and it hasn’t helped this problem on the cherry.

Sounds like ‘shot hole diease’ Aqua, fungal.
It happens more so in the dry weather.

http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/cropprot/tfipm/coryneum.htm

I meant to say.. it does sound like shot hole..

i had cultivated the soil on the north side of the cherry and it has been kept moist but, the south and east side still had unimproved soil with lots of thyme growing. i removed a lot of the thyme and the soil was bone dry, so improved and moistened it. hope that was why. the thing that has/had me confused is that all the pictures of shot hole on the net show a flowering/fruiting discoloration, whereas these holes look fairly clean. anyway, see how it goes now with most of the soil around the roots having been improved.

i double and triple checked…..and it doesn’t seem like shot hole after all. the classic discolored fringe around the holes is not there, and also it’s not small holes joining and becoming a bigger hole (as per shot hole) but instead holes that enlarge themselves. it also started suddenly after the leaves being blemish free, before flowering. so now thinking bacterial canker or freckle.
cheers

it’s doing my head in. the only thing i found was when i microscoped a young leaf that showed a tiny spot just starting to form, was a tiny black spot inside. either a bacteria spore or a very tiny bug, as i couldn’t make it out properly (inside of the leaf tissue) at 400 magnification.
on a brighter note…found out what those red kidney shaped things are on the leaf stalk. they’re glands. for a while i thought it may have been a scale or something. i’ve seen the odd ant and lacewing attend to the (minimal) exude of said glands. they’ve got some scientific name, which i promptly forgot.