Oak Tree Diseases – When You Must Trim It?

Recently, we have been asked about declining and dying oak trees. People usually want to know if oak wilt is responsible for this. Importantly, oak wilt is not widely known. Two common oak leaf diseases are anthracnose oak and oak bacteria and due to it you need to do tree trimming in OKC regularly.

Oak anthracnose

Oak anthracnosis is caused by Apiognomonia quercina, a fungal disease and is usually a cool, wet and spring disease. Nevertheless, in wet cool summers like this year, the symptoms can persist throughout the season. The majority of oak species show a range of symptoms dispersed through the canopy of the leaves. Symptoms range from small brown spots and irregular dead areas on distorted leaves to serious scourge, causing shriveling of twigs and leaf. This disease does not normally cause a lot of leaf fall.

Oak Wilt

The disease known to be unknown in most Maryland counties is called oak wilts. It is caused by Ceratocystis fagacearum, a fungal pathogen. This pathogen triggers vascular disease, which blocks the "circulatory system" of water and nutrients in the plant. It usually shows only red, scarlet, black and pin symptoms. Oak wilt also affects groups of trees closely spaced because it is distributed across root greys. Wider propagation is by feeding sap beetles. Symptoms appear near the top of the tree in the spring and early summer with leaves that develop an abrupt edge between green and brown dying leaf tissue. Another common symptom is a significant mid-summer fall in the flower.

Symptoms in Red Oak

Late foliar signs include wilting, bronzing and leaves at the end of the upper crown branches. The symptoms can spread quickly, often in a few weeks, through the crown.

Bronze starts at the outer edges of the leaf and moves to the middle of the bed. The boundary between the green and colored areas is often unclear. The leaves are often accompanied by discoloration. Both discolored and completely green leaves fall in large numbers from the tree but there generally remain a few discolored leaves on the tree. As the disease progresses, the year after the tree dies, fungus mats may be formed between bark and sapwood. The fungal mat can exert enough pressure on the overlying bark to raise and break it. The mat produces a fruity odor that attracts sapphires to feed on the mat.

White Oak Symptoms

Symptoms are changeable between white oaks and red oaks. Symptoms may develop with red oaks in the upper coronas of white oaks, but do not spread as rapidly. Symptoms are often limited to one or several branches at a time. White oak group members are rarely killed as the red oak group is. Leaf coloring occurs, but improvements are often more radical than in the red oak band. Spreading sapwood under the bark of infected branches on white oaks is much more common. Spore mats on white oaks are not produced.

Contact tree trimming in OKC at Clear Tree View Services. We are here to help you to trim infected trees.