Oak wilt hit my street hard last spring and the change in 8 months was brutal

I've been watching this block of houses near me in Austin for years, and last March three mature red oaks just started dropping leaves like crazy. I told the neighbor to call an arborist fast but he waited 3 weeks. By June all three trees were dead and we had to pay $1,200 each just to get them taken down safely. The fungus spreads through root grafts underground, so the whole block is basically a time bomb now. I started treating my own live oaks with propiconazole injections in July and it cost me around $400 for the whole yard. Now looking down the street you see empty patches of dirt where those big canopies used to be... it's depressing honestly. Has anyone else dealt with oak wilt spreading through connected root systems like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

maryh9625d ago

Used to think tree diseases were something you could just ride out and see what happens. Watching three fully grown oaks go from healthy to firewood in a single season completely changed my mind on that. That root graft connection thing is scary when you realize one tree can bring down the whole block.

angela4325d ago

Oh that "one tree can bring down the whole block" line hit close to home for me. My neighbor had a big maple that looked fine for years, then one spring it just didn't leaf out on half of it. Arborist came by and said it was some kind of wilt that traveled through the roots. We ended up having to dig a trench between our properties to cut the root connections. Cost me a pretty penny but my old silver maple is still standing five years later. Your mileage may vary but I definitely learned you can't just hope for the best with these things.