Tennessee has a plethora of beautiful oak trees. As beautiful as all those oak trees are, they are at risk for sudden oak death. A number of states are dealing with this disease in their woods and forests, including Tennessee. If you have oak trees, you want to make sure that your trees are as healthy as possible, so you should learn more about sudden oak death and what you can do about it.
Sudden Oak Death
Sudden oak death is caused by a pathogen called Phytophthora ramorum. P. ramorum is similar to a fungus and can reproduce both sexually and asexually, making it easier to spread. That's part of what can make sudden oak death so devastating to your trees.
Signs and Symptoms
When you know what some of the signs and symptoms of sudden oak death are, you are going to be in a better place to protect your trees. While the only way to definitively prove that your trees are infected is to take samples and have them tested, awareness of the signs and symptoms can give you a heads up so that you can call in a tree service to look at your trees.
Cankers
One sign that you might have trees with this illness is that they have cankers start to show up on their trunks. In trees, cankers are sections of the tree where bark has fallen off or doesn't grow anymore. Cankers can lead to girdling, which is where the wounds to the tree start to encircle the whole trunk. Generally, trees can't survive full girdling.
Shoot and Twig Die-Off
Your tree is going to put out new shoots and twigs so that it can continue to grow. Sudden oak death can cause that new growth to either not form or to die off before it can become anything else. In smaller trees, twig die-off can kill the plant before anything else can.
Spotted Leaves
Another sign of sudden oak death is that the leaves develop spots. Since many illnesses or problems can cause spotted leaves, this one can be harder to pinpoint to sudden oak death. Check for other signs and have a tree service inspect your tree and take samples to know for sure what’s causing the leaf spots.
Treatment and Management
You can't cure sudden oak death. The best that you can hope to do is manage the illness and keep it from spreading to your other trees. In the worst cases, you should get rid of any infected trees or other host plants. Treating and managing the disease is more about prevention, both from initial infection and from spreading out to other trees.
Avoid Infected Areas
One way to prevent the illness from getting a foothold in your yard is to make sure that you avoid as many infected areas as possible. If you do go into an area that is infected, make sure that you wash off your shoes and any gloves, as well as your clothes and hands. That gets rid of any spores that you might have tracked around.
Avoid Host Plants
Sudden oak death affects primarily oaks, but some plants are host plants that can carry the disease and spread it around to other trees. If you are planting new plants in your yard, check to make sure that you aren't planting any hosts in your yard.
You want your yard to look good and your trees to be healthy. Call us at
Kaily's Tree Service if you are worried about any of your trees. We will come and take a look at them to see if they have sudden oak death or something else. We can advise you on what you should do for your trees if they are ill.
