Not the one I would have chosen.

We have lost three trees this year in our yard to the drought. A Cedar Elm, a Black Gum and a very large Post Oak that is on the west side of our house. It starts shading our home about 10:00 AM and goes until sundown. It started looking bad and I told Maggi we had better start pouring the water to it, no good, it died in five days.

Wow bummer.

"It died in five days" doesn't really sound like drought, though, for an established tree, even if it had been weakened from last year. I wonder if something else is going on...

How sad. It thought post oaks were very drought tolerant. In the burbs, they die from too much water.

Yes, I am surprised that it died from lack of water, do you have an underground leak somewhere? that can kill them for sure.
Or have you changed the soil level around that area? either up or down?
Thant could do it too.
I am surprised that it has been so dry in east Texas, it surely has been here, we are fighting to keep plant alive every day.

That doesn't look like drought killed. Do you have termites, pine beetles, or fire ants really bad in your area? Pine beetles leave little holes drilled in the trunk spaced very evenly, one var does damaj to 10' off the ground, another pine beetle is from 10' and up. Fire ants, carpenter ants(huge black ones) start on the roots of a tree and kill it, it just dies. Your other trees are healthy around that tree, it shouldn't have been drought was the issue, and next season there will be others that die too if you don't look for a pest to be killing them.

I agree that this does not look like drought. The other trees in the area show no effect and, from the sound of it, this happened very fast. There may be some soil borne pathogen affecting the root system of the trees. Because these are all different types of trees & many destructive insects usually attack specific species, I don't believe that it is an insect attack. I have been know to be wrong though! :) Best to nip it in the bud before other trees fall to whatever it is. The only way to know the actual cause is to get a trained eye on the problem. Your best option is to contact your county agriculture extension agent to see if they can send someone out to evaluate the problem.

Took a long time to get him out here but we called the CAE when two giant red oaks (as in 40 ft) died almost overnight. Turns out the new owners had used weed and feed. The trees were stressed from drought and it was the final straw. We were afraid it was whatever beetle is killing all the oaks.

I know you are organic, Ken, but just thought I would warn others that might read this thread.

WEED & FEED is not particular about what it kills.
regardless of what the label says.

You are so right Kristi, those weed killers have killed many a tree.

De Soto, don't you guys have issues with caliche bedrock being real close to the surface, too?

Yes mam. We have been here almost 44 years and in the beginning we could hardly get the shovel in the ground. Have since added loam until it is about 3 feet down. When they cut down the earth to lower 35E we got a perfect picture of our problems.
On top is black clay. All part of The Grand Prairie echo system. The is 2 huge cement plants about 15 miles southwest of us.

Thought so, knew cedars grew reallly well there, 3' of loam, good work

Took 44 years and that doesn't mean to imply that the entire property is improved. We are in the Cedar Belt. Community just west of us is named Cedar Hill. I wouldn't trade these lazy rolling hills for the north side of Dallas. Flat, no trees , black gumbo soil. Decades ago almost all of the land north of here was covered in cotton. Before oil, Dallas was a cotton center. When we first moved here, when it rained the soil became pure black clay. One could walk barefoot in the mud and it required a stick to dig the mud off of your bare feet. I have watered religiously everyday since this latest heat wave struck us. There are still places where the earth has cracks. There is water under all of the caliche. When the high school was built 30 years ago, they had to put a sump pump under the stage in the auditorium. Another spring continually ran water over the front walk to the main entry to the school causing green moss to grow. After 25 years, they capped them off.

Kenboy, I'm truly sorry for your loss of your valuable trees. Have you found out anything?

And Frostwood, I'm trying to follow your point of a leak underground. What does that mean, in case I need to use that info someday?

We saw the east end of Galveston recently, after their old oaks were lost. Total devastation! Trees add so much and can cause a grevious loss when they die. The east end looks bad, bad, bad.

Fond of Arlington area, tho not necessarily the city, one bro in Venus, one in Midlothian, an the other in Arl, glad they put the bypass into Midl- thot I remembered the issues with DeSoto and Lancaster areas and Red Oak, moved down there from Wichita Falls in '84. Sis is still in Bonham, and my only dau was born in Grayson Co-Sherman, I'm an import from Okla, chuckl, but I moved to Huntsville in '93, and Magnolia in '09, my paternal g'parents are buried in Tishomingo, Ok, nephews up in the Paris area of Tx, guess I am rather a gypsy at heart, and love seeing the lan!d, maternal g'parents are buried in Albuquerque, and daddy took us touring all over the 3 state area when we were young, chuckl. Hope you get an edge on your trees! and no more die...

Hello Rose, I meant a leak like from sewage system or plumbing or something like that, that could do a lot of damage from too much water in the area.

Kenboy ~ we are seeing something similar in this part of east Texas. This did not happen overnight. There actually has been an extensive drought in east Texas, maybe not as severe as the western regions of Texas have endured but this also has gone on for two or three years.

This is a normal reaction from the prolonged drought and extensive heat we have endured. The leaves will start browning on the edges and begin to shed some but the tree still cannot assimilate the nutrients without adequate moisture so the leaves brown and drop.

Many of the large trees here are now dropping large limbs in a survival attempt. A few trees have actually keeled over on the ground but if yours are only shedding leaves, I would be patient. I would not give up on the trees till you see that they do not bud out next spring.

Different trees have different tolerance to flooding. Something like cypress is adapted to it - they just stick their knees up in the air and get oxygen that way.

Post oak is one usually described as intolerant. Black gum as "weakly" tolerant. Might be interesting to consider the species you have that were not stricken.

Still a bummer, whatever the cause. But yeah, don't cut until you're sure they don't leaf back out (or if the arborist assures you they're dead through and through.)

I do believe this is dew to drought. i do not see any damage from Pine Beatles or Termites, we will know more when we cut it down. It will at least keep us warm this Winter, a wood burning stove is our only source of heat. We do have Fire ants but they do not eat wood and Carpenter ants eat fungus that grows on rotted wood but I do not think any part of this tree has rot, again we will know more when we cut it down. If a tree has Carpenter and you will see them on the ground at times and I have never seen any around our home. Soil Borne Pathogens did come to mind but they usually are not prone to be in heavily wooded areas. From what I have been reading, when it strikes fields that are planted in trees, they suggest composting to elevate the problem. Well, compost is my middle name. I add several inches every yeas and I have never raked a leaf in my yard. All this composting has only raised the years a couple of inches in 12 years. We have not added to or taken down the soil layer and there is no water leak, sewer of fresh.

We had a severe drought in 05 and 06 and this tree has not looked it's best since then. It has just not had as many leaves ever year as the other trees around the house. We only had 1 & 3/4 in. of rain in March, April and May. The Cedar Elm did not try to leaf out until May and then soon died. The Black Gum only leafed out on a few limbs but has not died completely. There is another large oak in the woods across the street that is showing the signs of dying. As I drive around the area I see lots of trees, mainly large Oaks, that are up and dying.

Sounds possibly like the "oak bettle". I'm sorry that I don't know the correct term. This malady is making it's way across the nation and so far, there is no solution.

Thanks Josephine. I thought of an oil leak instead of the more common sewage or plumbing.

It takes so long to grow a good shade tree, I hate to read about their vulnerability.

Please research oak wilt, aka oak decline. It is very serious and can kill oak trees in a matter of days. We have treated all of the significant oak trees around our house with Alamo fungicide. The treatment is by IV with drilling into the roots at ground level and using pressurized canisters.

The Texas Forestry Service and Texas A&M has a lot of info available online. So far we have lost only some of the trees where we live in town, but our small ranch ten miles north is heavily wooded with huge oaks and we just hope it does not move there next. If we see any sign of the wilt nearby, we will do the trenching and take down trees at the outer edges of the property.

Part of the prevention is to do no pruning of live wood, absolutely none, except in the dead of winter. Even then painting wounds is recommended. Those beetles, nitidulid beetles, that LouC mentioned help spread the fungus in all but the very coldest weather. Don't stack firewood cut from an infected tree near one that is healthy because of the fungus.

If an oak has the disease and survives, it may eventually recover. According to the TAMU expert, Dr. Appel, who came here a few years ago for a community workshop, the tree may take twenty years to look good again. We have some that we salvaged ten years ago, and they still look ratty. But they are trying, and we will encourage them.

This message was edited Aug 26, 2010 9:19 PM

Thank you, Pat, for giving a clearer picture of the problem. "decline" has been identified in 2 of the 3 communities closest to ours.

Post oaks are members of the white oak family and are fairly resistant to oak wilt. According to the Forest Service, U.S. Dept. ofAgriculture, post oaks seldom die from oak wilt.

They are susceptible to other diseases, however, and one in particular, Hypoxylon Canker (Fungus – Hypoxylon atropunctatum) can kill very quickly. Stressed trees are most vulnerable. We lost all but a small handful of our water oaks during and right after the 2005 - 2006 drought. The effects of a drought may continue to damage trees up to several years after a drought and we haven't had just one, but several. The 2007 - 2009 drought was officially over last September or October. Some of our live oaks are just now dropping some large branches. Most of our live and post oaks seem to be fairing well mainly because the Colorado River forms our southern boundary and a good deal of our wooded area has a seasonal creek, which is kept wet by seeps and small springs, running through it. People on rockier ground or higher elevations have not been so lucky. I've seem a large number of dead and dying post oaks in the past year.... some loblolly pines as well. Because the trees dropping branches are in pastures with cattle, I had to hire someone to remove the rest of any broken branches as well any branches weakened by the breaks. I had to wait until this month to have the job done. There is a second window of opportunity to prune oaks — late July to early September — the hottest part of the year.
http://www.harris-tx.tamu.edu/hort/pubs/pubs/oakdisease.pdf
http://www.texasoakwilt.org/Documents/Stewardship/OakWilt_English.pdf
The www.texasoakwilt.org/Documents/Stewardship/OakWilt_English.pdfTexas Forest Service is very helpful.They will even send someone to look at your dead or dying trees and tell you what the problem is/was.

We had a red oak that died 2 years ago from that boaring insect (name I cannot recall). It simply turned brown and died within a very short time, of course it was probably infected long before I noticed brown leaves.
I also had a burr oak hybrid in MI that had wilt. I lost leaves early for about 5 years and didn't produce many acorns but it did make a full recovery eventually.
C

We have 3 huge old trees in the city of Frankston that have died this summer due to drought. They have been inspected by the authorities, but no size of bugs or disease. They are being cut down...

Was this summer drier than the last, it just didn't seem so to me.
C