I recently purchased a property with several trees and am just starting to learn about proper tree care. There is a large pin oak on the land that appears to be sick. It has a large black spot at its base, the bark is cracking in areas, it has some type of growth on some branches, and the leaves are spotted. I've attached some pictures. Any idea what may be causing this? Any recommendations on treatment? Thank you.
Sick Pin Oak?
- Thread starter JR80
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Bullseye T&L
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You have several things going on
1) The growth on the branches looks to be typical wood rot fungus because the branch is dead. Solution would be to hire an arborist to go up tree and prune out all the dead wood. This is just typical routine tree care.
2) The spots on the leaves are likely a fungus, but could be be a bacteria, though less likely. This is pretty common, and the spots won't necessarily hurt anything. If all the leaves have spots and the leaves were browning out and the leaves dying and dropping, then you might need to take action.
3) The hole with the swollen ridge coming down to it is the most concerning, though I wouldn't rate it super high. There are several possibilities as to what might have caused the initial crack. First would be a minor lightning strike, but I don't see any dislodged bark, so I doubt that's it. Second would be a wind crack, which would be long crack along grain of wood from the tree twisting in the wind. Third would be a frost crack where the water behind the bark swells during a freeze and causes the bark to separate. Or it could be a combination of 2 and 3 where it initially started as a internal wind crack, water from the xylem collects in the crack, then the freeze caused it to swell/rupture. In either case it doesn't look that bad. BUT, what I also see is that the hole seems to be exuding fluid. Since it's an oak I would not expect that to be sap (like say a fruit tree or a birch), so that means it may be bacterial wetwood disease, aka slime flux. Since I don't see a dark stained area below the hole, so it may not have been doing it for long. In fact, it may be handling the disease well. There is no cure for bacterial wetwood, but a healthy tree can fight it and keep it in check.
If I were you, I'd call up and arborist and have them come out and give the tree a good pruning and get rid of all the dead, damaged, and diseased wood. They can look at when they're there and give you a better assessment.
1) The growth on the branches looks to be typical wood rot fungus because the branch is dead. Solution would be to hire an arborist to go up tree and prune out all the dead wood. This is just typical routine tree care.
2) The spots on the leaves are likely a fungus, but could be be a bacteria, though less likely. This is pretty common, and the spots won't necessarily hurt anything. If all the leaves have spots and the leaves were browning out and the leaves dying and dropping, then you might need to take action.
3) The hole with the swollen ridge coming down to it is the most concerning, though I wouldn't rate it super high. There are several possibilities as to what might have caused the initial crack. First would be a minor lightning strike, but I don't see any dislodged bark, so I doubt that's it. Second would be a wind crack, which would be long crack along grain of wood from the tree twisting in the wind. Third would be a frost crack where the water behind the bark swells during a freeze and causes the bark to separate. Or it could be a combination of 2 and 3 where it initially started as a internal wind crack, water from the xylem collects in the crack, then the freeze caused it to swell/rupture. In either case it doesn't look that bad. BUT, what I also see is that the hole seems to be exuding fluid. Since it's an oak I would not expect that to be sap (like say a fruit tree or a birch), so that means it may be bacterial wetwood disease, aka slime flux. Since I don't see a dark stained area below the hole, so it may not have been doing it for long. In fact, it may be handling the disease well. There is no cure for bacterial wetwood, but a healthy tree can fight it and keep it in check.
If I were you, I'd call up and arborist and have them come out and give the tree a good pruning and get rid of all the dead, damaged, and diseased wood. They can look at when they're there and give you a better assessment.
