Wednesday, May 5, 2010

News About Oak Wilt


Deanie Dart shared this with us:


At the HOA meeting recently Jack Breese shared some good info about when to trim oak trees and, most importantly, when not to. The info is important due to the oak wilt problem that has swept Austin area - and various groups and agencies advise against pruning from February through Fall; best time to prune to avoid oak wilt is cold weather....I noticed a number of our neighbors trimming their oaks and it made me think we could share this info through our Preserve Ladies blog and on the HOA website. We use Certified Arbor Care in Austin - they are very knowledgeable, and we got the best price from them after having several services bid our job..... see www.texasoakwilt.org. Deanie

When to trim our trees is always helpful. In my last neighborhood our trees were the only ones spared from oak wilt because they were fairly new - we planted them 28 years ago. The extension agent that came to examine them said that oak wilt can spread through interlocking roots and since our trees were newer, they were not part of the neighborhood's Live Oak Root System. He also warned the neighbors against burning logs from trees that died or were cut down due to oak wilt because the ask could spread the disease. The site Deanie supplies also shows how insects spread oak wilt. That site mainly mentions Red Oaks in Texas. Live Oak trees are a little hardier.

another site is the United States Dept. of Agriculture's page on Oak Wilt, it's symptoms and treatment. You can find it at http://na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/howtos/ht_oakwilt/toc.htm.


No comments: