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Mature Oaks Dieing Update

K

kruser

Well-known Member
Certified Arborist came out today and gave me the bad news - Yep, Oak Wilt. Has gotten 5 or 6 trees in the last couple of years and is already working on at least 3 this year - All Red Oaks. We have owned this property for at least 25 years and he could not explain why this just recently started happening.
Bad news is there is no saving an infected tree and treatment for other trees is about $4 per inch of tree circumference - every other year !!
Good news is I learned all this for a $35 consultation/learning fee.
Thanks for the previous help and let me know if you have any questions.
Jim
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Painful. We had Dutch Elm Disease in the 70s throughout the northern Indiana and Illinois zone. Today it kills about 20 trees here in St Cloud Mn every year. Jim
 
A firewood harvest that you really don't want to happen. Know how my dad was always crying about how the American chestnuts died off. This is what happens with invasive stuff.
 
I have lost a couple on my 6 acre swampland ranch. On the edge of the swamp is a small red oak that has a dead top, but the rest of the tree leafed out this spring and so I hope it will survive.
 
-------, what state are you in? Oak wilt is a fungus carried by a picnic beetle. Thankfully the beetle only travels a short distance, so spread that way is minimal. Unfortunately, oaks tend to have the rootts of trees graft together, so the fungus can move from tree to tree that way. Storm damage or cutting (April to July 15 in Michigan) is what makes trees the most susceptible. Once a tree gets it, it?s usually dead within 3 weeks.
 
Sorry to hear about the trees. What area are you in (sorry if I missed it in the original post). My place is mostly wooded and I'm interested in anything might be a threat to trees. Planted a grove of Colorado blue spruce years ago. Big, healthy trees now but one succumbed to a kind of moth back when it was little. Forget the name but you recognize the problem when you see it--hanging coccoons everywhere made of dead pine needles. The other trees fought it off with some help from me.
 
red oak may not be the best variety of oak for cooking over as its smoke is quite strong/harsh. for heating it is ok. additionally, red oak is not considered a long life tree. white oaks are more favored for long life, fast growth, good heating and cooking. americian indians used the acorn of the white oak for a food source but would not use the red oak acorn as it contained a lot of tanin which is bitter.
 
Talked to a guy down home last Saturday that farms the folks ground and he was
saying something about the Blue Spruce disease - Don't remember what it was ???
 
Go on the net and type in BAG WORM. If you are very alert and lucky
and catch them as soon as they start making the cocoons spay them with
7 or pireathrin or any bug spray that will shut off their digestive
system. Alternative is to pick EVERYONE of them off by hand.
Quickly!!!!!
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HEY - Theres people UP here looking for you and your Bride to Show Up!
Galesburg is only an hour away and we can make Bloomington, IKnowAnna in about 4 hours!!
If that's too long, glennster is only about 3 hours away but likes to travel.
 

Yes, bagworm. Was years ago but remember spraying something on them. Also cut a lot off and stomped them. Seen big spruces dead from top to bottom from the bagworm.

Here in Maryland they put signs around not to move firewood. Ash borer is a problem here.
 
In Texas it hits live oaks. there is a beetle that will carry it from an infected tree to a wound in a tree a mile or more away but the primary way it spreads is through the root systems which can be interconnected over a large area. not much you can do. here they will trench 3 or 4 ft deep with a rock saw around the trees in an unaffected area to cut it off. very expensive in this
limestone rock
 
I have a large Ash tree in my front yard. Ash borer was common in our area. I had the tree treated by an arborist. After he treated it, the tree dropped nearly all it's leaves. This was in the summer time. It looked pretty dead. When I called the guy he said "This happens sometimes, and I don't know why" To my surprise the tree lived and leafed out the following spring, and still looks good now. I got a call the other day from the same arborist saying the tree needs to be treated again. He says the tree needs to be treated every 2 years, at a cost of $250 a pop. Can anyone confirm this, or contradict it? I thought he killed it the last time, I'd rather not give him a second chance, but will have it treated if necessary. As far as I know, or can find, he is the only arborist in the area. Thanks Greg
 
I have pine trees around our yard for a wind break. The trees are getting something that is making needles drop. It is so far effecting only the Col. blues.
 
South IN has the emerald ash borer in most white ash in woods. When driving thru here you see dozens of standing dead tree tops on wooded hillsides.These are white ash trees. It happens fast. Don't think much can be done about it. They only attack the ash species. EAB is moving from east to west across the country.
 
I think any type of disturbance around the roots of Oaks makes them more likely to die, up on the mountain on my place where no livestock or very little machinery travel rarely do I see an
Oak dying.Over in a field I fenced in some Oaks and other trees to clear out the smaller trees,briars,vines etc I've been feeding cows and running over it with the tractors several of the larger
Oaks have now died.
 
Mine are around 30 years old and stand about 35 foot tall. When we planted them we thought we would have a wind break for as long as we live.
 
In the past week I worked on this oak. There are 2 other dead ones nearby and probably at least a dozen dead ash.
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Good sized oak trees like that will make nice lumber if you can find someone with a sawmill to cut them up for you. They'll be fine to cut for lumber in the first year or two after they die, and at least you'll get some good out of an otherwise sad situation.
Zach
 
If your trees look like the ones in photo it is a fungus that gets into blue spruce and black hills spruce.It can be treated with fungicide but what I read you have to keep fighting it. Mine are not to far from house and well.I dealt with fungicide years ago when we raised pumpkin and is nasty to work with. During spraying you covered as much of your skin as you could and wore a mask to breath through. After spraying all equipment had to be washed down , destroy gloves and mask, and wash all clothes that you had on + take a cold shower to get any chemicals you might have got on your skin. Could not go into field for three days after spraying plants.
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I may try spraying them. A few years back the poplar trees in Indiana had a fungus and I sprayed moms trees with a fire extinguisher that you fill with water and air pressurize. They all survived so I may try it one the spruce.
 
It?s a fungus they told me to cut all the dead limbs off of mine and rake everything off the ground then put some fertilizer but I can?t remember what kind they say wet weather will cause it
 
Around here the red oak are about the only trees that stay healthy. Ash are on the way out due to the borers, cherry are rotting in the center and going down and sugar maples seem to be dying back.
 
If it gets as bad as in photos you haves to spray whole tree. The fungus spores get air borne and you have to spray bark on whole tree to stop it.
 
Greg, I have 2 young ash trees I planted maybe 15 yrs ago that are still alive but have sustained some damage but haven't gotten any worse. I cut down 6 dead large ash trees this winter. I treat these last two every spring (April) with a Bayer tree & shrub product for EAB. You can find it at Farm and Fleet, Menards, Lowes. I use the liquid version you mix 1 ounce per inch of diameter with water and pour around the tree perimeter. They also make it in granular/pellet version too.

Brad
 
Sorry for your tree loss, Kruser.
Over here on the "East bank" of the Illini river, we've been loosing Black oaks to Oak wilt for about 30 years - sorry its reached your side.
Also had/have Dutch Elm disease, Emerald Ash Borer, Beetles in Pine(??), and something killing our Blue Spruce like the fungus seen below
 
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