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 Post subject: question about post oaks
PostPosted: Mon Oct 20, 2003 6:48 am 
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Joined: Mon Apr 14, 2003 11:10 am
Posts: 24
Location: clifton,tx
My friend has a large post oak tree in her front yard. It is dropping many twigs with the leaves still attached. Single leaves are also dropping normally it seems. The small branches look to have just aborted off the larger limbs. Is this a characteristic of the tree? Been around them all my life, never noticed this before.

GP


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Oct 20, 2003 8:28 am 
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Post Oaks are notorious for reacting badly to any change at all in their environment. Any landscaping change, grade change, more/less water, etc will cause a Post Oak to decline in health. It's one of those trees that will grow on its own in a field fine but freak out and die when you suddenly indroduce irrigation, fertilizer, etc.

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Shepherd of the Trees
It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields we know so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 21, 2003 10:36 am 
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Joined: Mon Apr 14, 2003 11:10 am
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Location: clifton,tx
Thanks for your reply. The tree looked to be healthy--just lots of little branches falling. Does this mean it's health is declining? It's a giant of a tree. Don't think any changes have took place in the last few year. My friend waters her yard with sprinkler irrigation system. I think her setting are about 15 minutes/application. Don't know the gpm's.

Also some trees in her neighborhood are dieing. They too are post oak. The different is they still have leaves attached kinda like symptoms of cotton root rot. :?:

GP


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Oct 21, 2003 11:10 am 
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Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2003 4:47 pm
Posts: 36
Location: Germany
Post oaks

Very tricky trees to work with. Overwatering can be bad.

They need sandier soils. Good drainage. Water should move in and on down. If it stays, then you get fungal problems or root gas exchange problems. Call that issue the Primary agent. That weakens a tree to Secondary agents like borers, etc that finish them off.

Most people head out addressing the Secondary agents without addressing the Primary agent(s) - this is chasing your own tail IMHO.

Our capacity to prevent is much greater than our capacity to cure when it comes to tree care.

Good site helps. Do trees look like straws in the ground?? Is there root flare?

Vertical mulching to help drainage on the site is great for post oaks.

Good luck, stay proactive

Cert Arborist, TAMU Forester :wink:


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2003 8:28 am 
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Joined: Mon Apr 14, 2003 11:10 am
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Location: clifton,tx
Thanks for you reply. I guess I'm a little concerned with some of the trees dieing close by. What would it cost to get a tree expert to look at it? It has some ball moss growing on it also. Seems to go with this territory of south central Texas. Would be a shame to lose this tree as it's the only tree in her front yard. Thanks again Ent and treefreak.

GP


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2003 11:55 am 
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Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2003 4:47 pm
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Location: Germany
I heard yesterday about a bacillus :?: that kills post oaks - kills them fast. Anyone else have any input on that??


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 Post subject: Problems with oak trees
PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2003 12:34 pm 
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Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2003 11:21 am
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Location: Dallas, Texas
Hello,

I live in the Preston Hollow area of northern Dallas near the Hockaday School. The area is heavily wooded with a variety of oaks, native pecans, elms, cedar elms, cottonwoods, pines, sweetgum, and magnolias. I purchased my house about three years ago.

The large oak tree in my front yard appears to be a post oak tree. It suffers from premature leaf browning that occurs every year during late June and July, and it has substantially more dead limbs with each season. The tree appears to have been scorched by the sun.

One of my next door neighbors has a similar oak tree in his backyard. This past season, its leaves also started to turn brown in July. My neighbor dismissed the brown leaves as a typical seasonal pattern.

I have two large but different oak trees in my back that are thriving and are unaffected by this premature brown leaf and dead limb symptom.

In 1995, the previous owner deep fertilized the three large oak trees on my property. I don't know who treated the trees, or what was used as treatment.

I had Sam Hill Nursery diagnose my oak tree in the summer of 2002. It was suspected, but not for certain, to be suffering from a fungal disease.

The tree was treated in the summer of 2002 with a $1,200 dollar/gallon copper based solution that was injected into the root system. In the following spring of 2003, there were more dead limbs that were once healthy the year before.

The tree suffered again this 2003 season. It's probably too soon to tell if the treatment had any positive effect.

I am concerned that my tree will be a total loss in 2004. I would hate to lose this beautiful oak tree because is a favorite roosting place for a screech owl that catches critters that are attracted to the yard lights.

I searched the internet and found that there is an oak tree wilt disease that is spreading across the nation.

Does anyone else in the DFW area have oak trees whos leaves turn brown in late June and July? Have their trees been successfully treated?

I was born in Dallas in the late 50's, raised in the wooded country in south Arlington during the early 60's through 80's in the area what is now called the Park Mall, and I have lived in Dallas since 2000.

Over the years, various tree diseases have swept through north Texas. There used to be tall thorn trees that had long 2" to 3" purple thorns that, when the skin was punctured, a severe inflamation and infection occurred at the wound. Those trees were wiped out and died sometime during the 1970's. Similar diseases wiped out some native elm trees about the same time period.

This is the first time for me to see oak trees affected by a disease.

Sincerely,
John Sakowski


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Nov 25, 2003 7:56 am 
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Well unfortunately we're seeing a lot of Post Oaks suffer and it doesn't appear to be so much a disease thing as the tree itself simply not being tolerant of changes to its environment. You build a house next to a burr, shumard, blackjack, etc oak tree and they don't notice much as you change the soil, start watering a lawn, etc. Do the same near a Post oak, there's a good change the tree will get ill or die in a few years. Sometimes they will seem unaffected for a number of years, but too much change and they'll go south on you.

Oak wilt affects Red oaks, not white oaks. It's spread from root-zones or from pests that carry it from one tree to another.

If you're using artificial fertilizers, that definitely isn't helping, going over to the organic side will definitely help overall, but there's no guaranteed way to fix a Post oak that's decided it doesn't want to be there any more.

_________________
Shepherd of the Trees
It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields we know so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.


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