Question on Pin Oak

[KidGloveTree]

I am a self taught tree care professional out of Northern Arkansas, and though I don't have ISA certification yet, I plan to get it soon. But a question came up on the last job, and I need some help. An established customer of mine wanted me to trim some dead wood out of his Pin Oak, but I got to looking at it, and wanted to get an opinion on it before I did anything. Some background: the tree is 80+ feet tall, and a fairly open shape. It stands about 80 feet from the house, and is open to a field on the West side, so it has full sun from noon on. It has never been trimmed, as far as I can tell from my 5 years experience. 4 years ago a water line was trenched in 5 feet from the base, and then a gravel drive was installed about 10 feet away from the trunk, both on the West side. Last year the homeowner re-directed some water off of the hill, causing it to pool around the southern base of the tree. It's almost always wet now. Now for the the problem I'm seeing. The ends of all the limbs on the western side are have no leaves on them. That being the full sun side, it seemed odd for them to be dying back. This goes all the way to the top, and since there is very little other dead wood, it really stood out. My theory is that the cut roots from the trenching weakened the structure underground, and then the soil compaction and water is cutting off the air supply, thus forcing the tree to die back on the side most affected by the damage. But since I don't have the tree biology training, I need professional advice. Let me know if photos wold help, and I can e-mail them to you. I would really appreciate any help you could give! Thanks in advance!

 

[S Mc]

Welcome to the site, Kid.

Whereas I always like to see photos, and encourage you to post them here, from the information given, I believe you are reading this situation correctly.

You don't say what the dbh of the tree is but 5 ft from the base is very close for a mature tree. Pin oaks have a shallow, fibrous root system so a water line, generally put done 4 to 5 ft (at least here in my area), adds up to a lot of cut roots. Added to this, the compaction from the driveway and you are very probably seeing the beginnings of the effects from these combined insults.

Pin oaks are noted for being flood tolerant. However, they are more tolerant to flooding during dormancy rather than in leaf. Constantly standing in water throughout the growing season is very different than the flood tolerance described in Dirr and Harlow and Harrah's texts as "Pin oak makes good growth on wet clay flats, where water may stand for several weeks during late winter and spring. (Bold emphasis mine.)

If you need help posting pictures, we can give you directions.

Sylvia

 

[KidGloveTree]

Thanks for the advice. It's nice to know that my read was approximately correct. I could surely use the help on posting photos too. Thanks for your time, it's so appreciated. By the way, my recommendation to the owner was to try diverting the water away from the trunk, and then in the fall after dormancy, I would come in and give a pruning to the tree to decrease the mass it has to leaf out in the spring, hopefully allowing it an extra reserve of nutrients to repair the damage. Am I correct on that theory too?

 

[S Mc]

Kid, the way I post pictures is to open them in paint, select Image, then select Stretch/Skew. I opt for 25% reduction on the horizontal and vertical. Save. This reduces the picture to a size the forum will accept and yet be big enough for us to see.

I would be very reticent to recommend reduction of live tips on this tree, especially without seeing the photos first. I would want as much growth regulators production, Auxins, to go back into production of roots. But may we see your photos and then talk some more?

Sylvia

 

[tomtrees58]

yes 5' from the base is way to close and so is to much water trim the tree in the fall tom trees

 

[KidGloveTree]

Okay, thanks. I will post photos as soon as I remember what happened to my camera cable...

 

[treeseer]

http://www.treesaregood.org/treecare/treatment_construction.aspx

First they cut the roots, now they want you to cut the branches. I'd clip out the dead now and do a maximum of root care, then finish pruning in january.

Kid, you need more than a saw to care for trees.

 

[elmtree]

If they filled the trench with limestone you may run into another problem down the road.