Lawn under a White Oak Tree

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poodlelady Palo Alto, CA Aug 23, 2008

I have a beautiful and valuable 400-600 year old white oak tree in my backyard. I planted grass underneath that is growing beautifully even with the speckled sun. But someone told me that by watering the grass, I can activate an "oak tree fungus" that could kill my tree in 10-20 years. Is there any truth to that?

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JulieQ Bella Vista, AR(Zone 6b) Aug 23, 2008

Four to six-hundred years old! Awesome! I would love to see a picture of it.

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Aug 23, 2008

One of the key things to do first is make sure you know exactly what type of oak it is--are you 100% positive it's white oak? There are some California native oaks that absolutely will die from fungal problems if you give them much summer water at all, so if it's misidentified and is actually one of those instead, then you will have problems (this is probably what the person who told you about the fungus was thinking of). But if it's really white oak (Quercus alba) then you're probably OK, it grows fine in other areas of the country where they get summer rain so it's more tolerant of moisture. With most trees though, the grass tends to need more water than the tree does, and the tree tends to steal moisture and nutrients from the grass as well as shading it more than is ideal, so they're not the best "companion plants" for each other. So personally I would opt to grow other things under the tree instead (but to be fair, I'm not a huge fan of grass at all, I ripped all mine out, so I may be a little biased!) If you are sure it's white oak and you do decide to keep the grass there, I would just advise you to be careful on the watering--make sure you're watering on the low end of the range that's needed to keep the grass happy rather than watering the lawn every day like I see some people doing.

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kitten0115 La Vergne, TN Aug 28, 2008

Me, i like asphalt for lawns..perfect.. no mowing, raking, watering..it's the perfect lawn. I agree take a smaple if you have to to your extension office or some places you can send a photo in and get the actual name of the plant. I always encourage you to research everything you can about, the oak. What a valuble and beautiful thing to have. You know for expensive plantings they have insurance that can cover it in case something happens to it. Landscaping adds dollars to your homes worth, so protect it by learning all you can about it.

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