Do these trees deserve to live?

[roberthathaway7]

I have a couple white oaks (200 yards from each other) on my farm that have very thinned leaves, and the leaves that are there do not look healthy at all. They are curled up some, almost look eaten off some..maybe not though they are too far up to see well, but also they have a reddish tint like a rust. What is the deal? are they diseased? should I cut them down? or is it normal.. I cut and sell firewood so it they wouldn't go to waste but I hate to cut a good white oak down if I don't have to.

 

[rarefish383]

You really need pics on this one. It may be infestation or disease of some sort. White Oaks, especially big ones, are my favorite tree. Pics will help with a long distance diagnosis, Joe.

 

[tree md]

X2

White oaks are my favorite. I'd keep them if I could. Deer love the acorns.

 

[horseloger]

its probly the drought conditions stresing the trees it is going on big time here in south east mo most of the old groth white oak is browning up

 

[roberthathaway7]

it's gotten a little bit dry here but not too awful much, we were cutting good hay off the pasture when I noticed they were looking bad. I'll try to get some pictures soon

 

[tree md]

One trick I learned with drought stressed trees is to put a five a five gallon bucket (or two or three) with water just inside the drip zone. Poke a few holes in the bottom of the bucket so the water seeps out. It will keep all the water from running off as will happen when you try to just water them with a hose.

 

[roberthathaway7]

Hey thanks tree MD that's some pretty excellent wisdom.. I'll use that at least for handing out advice in my landscaping business..

I forgot to say that it has rained here for the past two days finally, so I was wondering if there would be any marked improvement in the next week or two in the case that it was just dry weather

 

[horseloger]

The bucket idea is wonderful thats old wisdom there and yes if the trees have not been burned to bad they may return but it may not be untill next year they may remain doment untill spring!If they do not though you might consider haveing the good logs sawed up and useing the tops for fire wood oak lumber is on the rise!

 

[Amber]

Poke a few holes in the bottom of the bucket so the water seeps out. It will keep all the water from running off as will happen when you try to just water them with a hose.

Wow, that's brilliant, MD!

I live in Texas and during the summers I swear the ground gets hard baked from the dry heat. It's always a chore keeping the trees watered - seems the water either runs right off or just evaporates into nothing a few minutes after watering. Definitely going to try your trick with the bucket. Wonder if that will work in the garden, too, if I use smaller buckets??? THANKS!

 

[tree md]

Thanks but I can't take total credit for that. I learned it from an old treeman who would be in his 80's now.

I personally like a soaker hose in the garden but a sprinkler works well too. Just make sure you don't over water. Two of the gardens I am taking care of now I am pumping water out of a small pond and just hitting them with a few connected garden hoses. The plants love the warm runoff water from the pond.

 

[Amber]

Thanks but I can't take total credit for that. I learned it from an old treeman who would be in his 80's now.

It's amazing how much some of the older generation knows about gardening, farming, etc, and kind of scary to think of how much practical knowledge is going to be lost with them. There's stuff I've learned from my grand-dad that I've never found in a book.

 

[tree md]

Same here. I learned so much from my grandmother about plants and gardening. She was raised in a place that doesn't even exist anymore called Paradise, KY back during the depression era. They raised and grew all of their own food. They were still slaughtering their own hogs and beef when I was a kid. The whole family would go down there to help out and everyone would bring home a Winter's supply of meat.

When my grandmother got too old to do it, I planted a garden for her. She loved it. She would tell me in early-mid Summer that we needed a few cool nights for our tomatoes to turn red and ripen on the vine. I think of her on a daily basis and still have a question for her everyday. She has been gone for over three years now though. I miss her.

 

[Amber]

@TreeMD:

I'm hoping that sometime in the next few years we'll be able to supply the family like that. Granted the trees are going to take much longer to mature since we only just planted a bunch this spring, but we're having great success with berry bushes and a large assortment of other veggies (asparagus, okra, tomatoes, etc).

 

[tree md]

Just got in from picking a bunch of tomatoes, Okra and cucumbers. I've got veggies coming out of my ears. I've still got to go down and pick another 40x40 garden on the North side. I got run inside because it's looking like a pretty good storm is blowing in (doing my rain dance). I usually put 6 deer in the freezer every year along with 2 or three hogs (I hunt them in Jacksboro, TX). Probabaly got 50 pounds of fish froze up. And my uncle raises Black Angus outside of OKC. LOL, I hardly ever buy groceries. Veggies in the winter, flour, sugar and other staples but I rarely buy any meat.

If I knew how to can I would almost never have to go to the grocery...

 

[roberthathaway7]

I have worked for years for my family at our store.. it's like a feed store/ garden/ everything else store.. and I get talk to all of the old people in the area and I love it! I do learn so much from them, and am humbled by the way they all grew up providing for themselves in so many different ways. I know so much for a young guy about gardening, I just wish I had time to get into mine a little more and put it to use!

Funny story- I was always a quick sell to any girl's parents when I was dating around because I could talk to mom about her flowers and dad about his pepper plants "what's that, a japanese beetle? you know what you could do is.. well dad those potatoes don't need nitrogen so much as they do phosphate" hahahah, it was terrible but still cracks me up that I used that.

Hey about that watering.. natural water is always best for plants (rain, pond, well). One way to get fresh is to rig up a system where your gutters run into a holding tank like wooden barrel or plastic barrel or trashcan. I don't know about metal barrels because of the rust.. but in an arrid place like yours you may want to put a lid on it to keep the water. Cut a hole and put in a spout of some sort near the bottom of the barrel and you can hook it up to a hose that runs over to your soaker hoses. You can always keep track of how much water you are using by watching the levels.

Some people make their own soaker hoses by taking 1" PVC and drilling holes in it, then burying them along the rows. You can even put a single 4" spout at the end of the garden that runs to all of them so you can run buckets over to one . If you wanted you could buy the parts and put a female connector on the pvc for a water hose if the barrel is too far away. You can also use a dolly to pull the barrel over to the garden and buy one of those 12" connector hoses and run it between your barrel and your pvc, just make sure you put a shut off valve on the barrel's tap.

The cool thing about gardening is the options are endless

oh and I would always water early in the morning in case your barrel gets hot during the day, you don't want to scald. Plus it's always best to water in the morning or evening, NEVER water in the middle of the day especially with direct cold water unless it's an emergency. I personally like the evening, considering I don't have the hot water dilemma, because it gives the plants a chance to soak up the water rather than fight the sun and wind all day for the moisture if you water in the morning.

TreeMD was right about not over watering too. Over watering usually has to do with the frequency of watering. Sometimes you will literally drown a plant. Actually I think it may have to do with being too wet for the microorganisms that really feed your plants' roots. But another this is, most plants need a "drying period". Of course in texas that's probably not much of a problem, it can get pretty wet and humid around here so people are always watering too frequently. People that say they water their plants in the morning and the evening, and if they skip one watering the plants wilt by the next day. Well, that's because the plants haven't grown the proper deep root systems they need because their root systems haven't had to go plundering for water. Farmers worry with a spring /early summer full of rain that makes their corn shoot up like crazy because due to contant moisture, the corn actually isn't growing a proper deep root system to be ready for a dry summer. This concept is the same for your garden.

 

[tree md]

I like to water in the evening, just after the sun goes down. With the sun and heat here, I'm afraid of burning them up if I water in the morning. The worst thing you can do, as Robert has mentioned, is water when there is full on sun or in the middle of the day. That will burn them up every time. Natural water is better but if you cannot come by that, put some water in a bucket or watering pot and let it set overnight and come up to temperature. Plants seem to love luke warm water. Water your plants with water that you have filled the day before and fill your bucket/watering pot after you are done so it can set out over night.