We are purchasing 10 acres in Gillespie county and had an arborist come out. Vast majority of the property was fine, just had some stressed trees. One section had a tree with text book picture of the leaf veins.

I'd like to hear any personal experiences on how people have dealt/managed a property with oak wilt present but only appearing in a very small area. What was the treatment and overall management strategy for the overall property and then the specific tree/area that has a tree with oak wilt?

I keep hearing Oak Wilt is everywhere and that it is not necessarily a death sentence for trees. I'm trying to understand what I'm getting in to so I can be proactive.

Thank you all

Scott

I do know some trees tolerate or survive it but they'll be in a weakened state so other causes of distress need to be accounted for.

I believe if they are isolated and don't overlap root networks, the only vector for spread is certain insects.

Personally I would not purchase the property

Our family ranch of 900 acres had and still has oak wilt. We have lost about 2/3rds of our live oaks.

If you shoot an email over to the Plant Pathology dept. at TAMU you'll probably find some knowledgeable people that would love to give you their input as well.

Great department, full of outstanding Aggies.

Supposedly there is a water corn meal mixture that helps control it and brings trees back that suffer from it. Not sure the exact ratios but bob Webster in San Antonio always talks about it. I'm sure if you went to the dirt doctors website it would be there.

Plant some different oaks to eventually replace them. Some oak species are quite tolerant of it. My property is heavily post oaks and they are very sensitive to any disturbance and I have lost a few to severe drought harm and finished by hypoxylon. I have a few water oaks and I have made sure to spread a few more of them around, but I have a boat load of post oak seedlings growing too. Added a few of my own native oaks of several varieties plus other native trees. If there's more variety, no one disease can take them all out.

S.A. Aggie said:

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Our family ranch of 900 acres had and still has oak wilt. We have lost about 2/3rds of our live oaks.

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When I was looking at ranches to buy I ran across several that had oak wilt. The worst one was in Gillespie county. I would say the majority of the live oaks on that place were dead. There are some areas out there that have been hit really hard. I really don't think there (trenching, tree injections, cornmeal?) is much that realistically can be done.

TexAgs delivers as usual. Thanks for the dirt doctor recommendations. Here are two links to dirt doctor articles.

https://www.dirtdoctor.com/garden/Sick-Tree-Treatment_vq382.htm
https://www.dirtdoctor.com/garden/Trichoderma_vq13919.htm

Hmm. Maybe the cornmeal is legit. Still tough to deal with a few hundred acres of live oaks though.

There are two types of property in Central Texas:
1. Those that have Oak Wilt.
2. Those that will have Oak Wilt.

Oak Wilt spreads up to 150 LF per year through interconnected roots. Get an arborist out there ASAP & act fast before Spring. A big rock saw or backhoe cutting trenches around infected areas is expensive, but it really slows down the spread. You can also pre-treat trees with fungicide to give them some proactive treatment. This lasts 2-3 years IIRC before more treatment is needed.

Pre-treating is expensive, so I'd only recommend it in places around your homestead or really special oaks.

Planting a variety of trees is nice, but honestly the Hill Country should be mostly grass. The lack of burning increased the number of oaks which made fungal transmission via roots such a nightmare.

ALSO

Don't just look at your property if at all possible. You may have neighbors with oak wilt outbreaks just beyond the fenceline. Get with your neighbors if possible to develop a strategy for control if they are willing & able. A drone may be useful to peak around and see if outbreaks are nearby so you can do some preventative trenching or treatment.

Good luck.

This time of year is a terrible time to look at live oaks for oak wilt.

Unfortunately oak wilt is prevalent in Gillespie County but not a death sentence for property value. I am currently working through a similar situation. Find an arborist to make a plan: trenching (5-7 ft deep) to break root transmission lines, fungicide for at-risk trees & to protect valuable trees (can't remember exact numbers but treating a 12" diameter mature tree is ballpark $450) & removal of clearly diseased trees. Cost comparison is predicting actual risk to other trees then looking at treatment vs replacement $$.

Good luck!