Red atemoya leaves are drying out and darkening

[eez0]

what is going on with this red atemoya? It started with the dark stuff, but at least the leaves were green. But now it's getting worse, with the leaves actually becoming quite yellow-ish and drying up.

[Orkine]

Don't know what your seasons are, but that looks like a normal atemoya loosing leaves in winter ahead of new growth in spring.
My Birula looks like that, perhaps a little worse since some of the leaves have actually dropped off.  I am considering stripping the rest in a week or two if they don't drop by themselves.  Dream did the same a little earlier and dropped all its leaves.  Now it is pushing new growth.

[eez0]

so the dark stuff is normal?

Spring just started a few days ago.

[JR561]

so the dark stuff is normal?

Spring just started a couple a few days ago.

Yeah, as the leaves get close to dropping before new growth they look horrible.

[Jeramyl]

Mine looks exactly like this right now.  I have a multi-grafted tree with Cheremoya, and only the grafted branches have this, but they look identical to yours.

I agree with the earlier comments that this is perfectly normal, and these leaves will drop soon as part of the natural, annual cycle. If you look close, you will probably see spots where new growth is already beginning. I can see little spots of growth already, but our climates may be slightly different than one another .