Hi all,

One of my two year old oak trees seems to be stressed and its leaves are turning brown (I'd say rapidly) and falling off. I realize that its been pretty hot as of late in DFW, but this tree and my other out front have their own bubblers and get watered weekly. I tried taking some photos and would gladly take more if anyone thinks it would help in identifying what the issue might be. All help is greatly appreciated. Really don't want to lose this tree.

Sick tree -













Other tree (healthy) -

I've got the exact same problem with the same tree in Midland. Mine is a little further along than yours. Most of the leaves have fallen off aleady. The grass under it is nice a green, so it isn't a water problem.

I've heard in the past that if the leaves turn brown but stay on the tree is dead. I don't know how much of that is antedcotal, but the fact they're falling off is giving me some hope.

^^^
true

I think it is just the way the tree is dealing with the stress of a hot summer. When the temps cool down a bit and we get some rain, give it a round of fertilizer.

I had a similar situation where one side of my tree was pretty much dead. I had a friend that owns a tree service company, check it out, and he told me I had tree borers.
He suggested I go to Home Depot and buy a treatment that is put out by Bayer. It's a liquid that you add water to and pour around the base of the tree.
It turned all the leaves on the tree a nice maroonish color, but it seemed to clear the problem up, and the tree is is way better than it has been in a while, and this year the leaves are green again.
http://www.bayeradvanced.com/tree-shrub-care/products/12-month-tree-shrub-insect-control-landscape-formula

[This message has been edited by NonRegAg94 (edited 8/21/2010 2:39a).]

my two front yard trees are doing the same thing (red oak and red maple), i pinpointed that it's the sprinkler water doing it.. where the water directly hits the leaves, it kills em brown. the tops of my trees are fine.

One of my young maples did the same thing about a month ago. It looked like Fall in my front yard. I just figured it was a way for the tree to preserve some water during the heat. It has a few green leavs left on it, and I'm hoping it is fine.

Looked my tree over this morning. All the brown leaves have blown off, leaving the green ones intact. I feel better and am guessing that maybe it was a stress relief mechanism for the tree.

those trees are dry. they require a lot more water than grass. you need to put your water hose on a slow trickle(slow as you can get) and water that thing for 6 hours. you need to do this a few days in a row to get that tree to come back.

Pedro,

How Goes!! How's the golf game this year?

Your trees are pretty young and after a hard winter and no this hot summer are probably stresses. I think the previous poster is right and they need some more water. Have you tried deep watering?

Hey Kev! Golfing is good. Down to around a 17 now. Good for me anyhow. You should come play with us on Sunday if you can get away. Just shoot me an e-mail. We play a track north of here.

I have a deep watering spike that will penetrate about a foot deep. I'll give that a go.

Way to go. haven't gotten out much this year, but have done well the few times. Cant make this Sunday, but might make some other time. I will try and send you an email this week.

Look into a disease called Oak Wilt - this looks similar to photos that I've seen of that disease.

This should help you out if it is indeed oak wilt.

Hope it's not, but it's been getting more and more common in Texas over the past few years.

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/howtos/ht_oakwilt/toc.htm

That is NOT oak wilt, I can assure of that.

Well to update... I've deep watered and its rained here the past couple of days. A good portion of the leaves are still on the tree. I'd say about 50%. The ones that turned fully brown, dropped off.