Help! Sick oak trees

I posted a while back about my oak tree which we thought had been struck by lightening. Boy was I wrong. The crack in the trunk is still there, the black in the trunk is still there, but now there's a big place about 3' higher up the trunk that looks all wet and gooey and has been leaking something. Could it be wetwood?

Also, the other oak tree has these leaves that look very weird. The veins are yellow and very swollen, the leaves are all sucked dry. Some of the leaves have little webs on the end.

Any help in diagnosing and treating these problems will be very much appreciated.
Thanks, Lesley

This picture is the weeping wet spot.

This message was edited Jul 8, 2006 1:45 PM

This the lower spot that we thought was a lightning strike.

This one shows the swollen and discolored veins on the leaves. Both upper and lower surfaces are visible.

The little web-like thingy on one of the leaves.

Another web-like structure encompassing the leaves.

It sure looks like wet wood in the trunk of the oak. Not pretty but no serious harm to the tree. No cure or treatment. I had this in a maple right smack in the front yard. It eventually spread from about two feet above ground to above the second set of branches. It was so ugly we took the tree down this spring.

A midge is definitely responsible for the "vein pocket" or "rib gall" on the leaves.
I don't know enough about the life cycle of the midge to say whether or not it is the cause of the webs. I think the webs could be some other pest. Is there anything in the web? Do you have a jewelers loop to see anything?

Smooth-Veined Pocket Gall (Macrodiplosis quercusoruca) with a secondary infestation of some sort?

http://www.ento.okstate.edu/ddd/insects/veinpocketgall.htm

Thank you both so much. I had visions of having to take out the trees. We may end up taking out the one with the wetwood eventually, but I'm glad to know they're not that serious in the short term.

Ummm, thank Snapple. She got it first. I do believe there is something else going on with that webbing and I don't quite know what it is other than it doesn't appear to be a result of the Pocket Gall Midge.

If you think yours look bad, take a look at one of mine. It has been this way for several years. It looks almost like tar running down the trunk.

I'm greatful to all of you for sharing your knowledge.

Lesley

Kiwigal,
Here is a link to what I found on the internet. I was looking for the bugs that were on branches of one of my oak trees when I found this.

http://www.treehelp.com/trees/oak/oak-diseases-wetwood.asp

I agree with the Smooth-Veined Pocket Gall ID for the vein galls. I also would think that the webbing on the 2nd photo is probably associated with a caterpillar or the larvae of another bug. I think there are literally hundreds of possible choices and I'm not a good enough ametuer entomologist to narrow it down enough for you. The last one looks like it could be the beginnings of a nest of a relative to the common webworm. I don't believe I've seen common webworms on Oaks before, but it's probably possible. I have seen other catterpillars similar to webworms that have made small nests in Oak branches though. Again, my entomology skills are lacking. Also, I've been observing a large native Swamp White Oak (Quercus bicolor) with wetwood and it appears to have gone away on it's own in the past couple of years. I think with good care of your tree, like watering during drought etc. and maybe cleaning the bark away from the wound(I don't think this is as necessary) could help your tree heal the wound and the wetwood will go away also.

Thank you both very much.
Hostanquilts, I found the same page in my internet travels, which led me to my tentative diagnosis of wetwood. Great minds, and all that. Thanks

kman, I agree that it looks a bit like webworms. The tents are pretty small, though. What we used to call webworms when I lived in TX would cover half the tree. I think they call them tentworms up here.

We had a really dry spring and the past few weeks have been unbelievably wet. I guess this kind of stress could make the trees vulnerable. I noticed that the soil has subsided or the roots have grown up; anyway, they're a bit exposed. I guess they could have been nicked during routine lawn maintenance.

I had thought of adding soil and making a garden under the trees in question. That way the roots would be covered with really good soil and nutrients.

If I were to clean the surrounding bark, would I do it with just water or find some kind of antibacterial / antifungal agent to assist?

Again, thanks to all for sharing.

Lesley

I was talking about taking away the bark immediately around the wound. If you do this, the bark should be loose and you should be very careful to only take off bark, not going too deep and injuring the green cambium layer that is immediately below the bark. I don't think this is necessary, but if you feel confident you can do it carefully there is some evidence it accelerates the healing and drying up of wetwood wounds.

kman_blue is that wound cleaning applicable to all trees for wetwood? The maple we took down had no loose bark at the margins. One thing of interest is that when we did cut it down we had the tree guy cut it into several cross sections so we could inspect the damage internally. It was surprisingly superficial in depth, relatively speaking. The problem was that the wetwood extended nearly 20 feet vertically, really, really ugly. It was one big long black wet gash straight up the trunk into the canopy.

snapple45, it's a general suggestion for helping the tree to heal the wound quicker and to help dry out the wetwood. It would be much more difficult on a thin barked tree like most Maples though. Also, I'm not sure how solid the data behind this advice is, but I've heard from some who swear by it and also many universities publish this advice still, so I think there is something to it. Yes, most wetwood wounds are not serious and do little harm to the tree and the wetwood fungus actually makes the tree less susceptible to infections from rot causing organisms and fungus. Apparently something the wetwood fungus produces has this effect. And yes it is typically smelly and ugly to look at, but usually not too harmful to the tree. I guess if it was in a Maple tree in the middle of my front yard I would be more worried about doing something than if it was out back where nobody had to smell/look at it.

kman -
Thanks for the clarification. I'll go out today and see whether I can easily remove the bark around the wound. So far I haven't noticed it smelling bad, but the big patch is only about 1 month old. If I get the bark off now, maybe I can forgo that happy event.

I think wetwood is a bacterial (not fungus) infection, and the bacteria are reported to be antagonistic to decay fungi. I believe it should be left untouched. But don't ask me to source any of that hearsay!

Guy S.

Kman_blue,

It is such a simple thing, watering trees, and so important, especially during a drought, yet so many of us do not think of doing it or neglect doing it.

I have some significant problems with several of my trees this year, and I believe a goodly part of the reason why I do is because I failed to water during the very dry weather we had last summer and fall.

The tree specialist who came out to look at my trees said that a stressed tree, such as one that is not getting enough water, puts out chemical "signals" in both the air and in the soil that insects and perhaps other organisms can sense, and which "tell them" to attack the tree.

I trust that from now on I will be giving more care to my trees, even the large, well-established ones. The tree specialist said that when the weather gets droughty, to water under the crown of the tree, not up against the trunk, and to do a slow 2-hour soak. I am not sure I could manage that once a week, but even once a month would be far better than nothing, I think.

I think I may also fertilize some of my trees. The one tree I did water and fertilize last season was a red bud that was looking unhappy---some browning leaves and not much new growth. It looks much better this season.

I only fertilize mine (if at all) in late winter or early spring before they leaf out. In my opinion it stresses trees to fertilize them in the summer, especially if it's dry. The fertilizer stimulates new growth and then if it doesn't get enough water combined with the heat, they look scorched.

Doh! Another brain dead moment for me! Yes, slime flux (aka BACTERIAL wetwood!) is of course a bacterial infection and NOT a fungus.