What's bothering my cherry tree?

[NewGen]

Part of the leaves are dried out. Anything you can think of? The tree is Stella cherry, I just got a handful of fruits earlier this year, in the same container.
Thanks!!

[gozp]

How is your watering schedule?

[Citradia]

Growing Stella sweet cherry in zone 10? In a pot? You got fruit off of it despite lacking chilling hours; amazing. My cherry trees tend to get leaf diseases and usually drop brown leaves between August and October. My Stella is huge and holds its leaves better than montmorency or my starkcrimson or Bing. My Stella flowers well but doesn't produce much probably dt late freezes, pollinator too far away etc. I'm guessing your leaf scorch on ends of leaves due to lack of water in pot or too much water with subsequent root rot. I know CA has a unique climate, but zone 10 sweet cherry sounds like a climate problem to me.

[SoCal2warm]

In the hot dry climate where you live, that cherry tree definitely needs a bigger pot to give the root system more access to moisture in the soil. Otherwise it will dry out. Also make sure you are using the type of soil that will retain water well (loamy soil, I recommend compost with a small amount of thick wood chips in there, not redwood chips; decaying wood can act as a sponge for water).

Most likely, Stella will rarely ever produce fruit in zone 10. For Lapins, I have read reports that the fruit production in zone 10 will be off and on, typically producing every other year, though the crops are not that big.

I am growing a Bing, just as an experiment. It may never produce fruit here, but it seems to be growing pretty good and it already put out 11 blossoms in its second year. Might have to graft on a different variety if it doesn't produce fruit by 5 years. Though I did see in another forum someone (close to where I live) got 12 cherries from an ultra-dwarf Bing in a pot, which was encouraging.

One word of advice I can give you, which I think will be very helpful, move the pot under partial shade during both the Winter (December to the beginning of February) and during the Summer (middle of May to the beginning of September). In Winter this will help increase the effective amount of chill accumulation the plant experiences, while in Summer it will help prevent the leaves from getting dried out and baked in the scorching sun. In my experience, cherry tree leaves are not able to handle intense sun in hot dry conditions as well as other stone fruit trees (sweet cherry originates from another part of the world with a more northerly temperate climate). Trying to grow cherry in climate zone 10 can be just as challenging (maybe more) as many other kinds of tropical fruit here.