Texas Heat!

[pacerron]

Noticed while out walking the fence the neighbor lost a huge oak tree, I have gave him some fire wood and he has cut a little, but he is like me in the sense we hate to cut a good tree. I guess he should get most of what he needs out of that big one. I have lost about 10 oaks, a few Live Oaks and all the 60 trees I planted last year.

Dennis,
Sorry to hear about your trees. Planting oaks is an investment for future generations and the climate that we can only hope will be used wisley. Sad to say around here you often see truckloads of 12-18" diameter 40' oak logs
on the way to sawmills that cut them up for shipping pallets. I guess that is one of the factors that makes a red oak project board at Lowes $6 a board foot nowadays. Attached is a picture of an old oak on a field line of mine. I took the picture in 2006. It is actually a vertical sew/pan of 6 exposures from standing near the bottom of the tree. It has been estimated to be close to 150 years old. I don't know if TBN will allow it to load this size but if they do, download it and view it full size on your monitor to get the massiveness.
Looks like they accepted it at 972kb. I think they have a 1MB limit.
Ron

 

[pacerron]

I'm seeing lots of leaf-shed by my postoaks and blackjack oaks. Of course, there's a lot of this in my woods, but the trees in my yard also are in stress. However, postoaks don't particularly like being in yards and getting watered on a regular basis. I have several trees that rebel because they refuse to be "domesticated" and don't like having their shallow roots wet when I water the grass. Only the bigger and more mature trees seem to be unfazed. I have three small trees that are mostly dead and several 12" to 14" diameter trees in serious stess.

Jim,
Check this solution. The article was written in 2000. It would be interesting for someone living in or near Denton to see if these post oaks thrived.
Botanist extends life of post oaks - University of North Texas News Service
Ron

 

[jinman]

Jim,
Check this solution. The article was written in 2000. It would be interesting for someone living in or near Denton to see if these post oaks thrived.
Botanist extends life of post oaks - University of North Texas News Service
Ron

Never trust an article written by somebody who spells "post oak" as two words.:laughing:

I'm very familiar with UNT and the campus. I can tell you that the soils and conditions are very different from where I live. While the trees growing there share the same characteristics (heat tolerant, low water needs, hate change) they were grown in different soils and different circumstances. Like people, they adapt. Once adapted, they don't like change. The happiest postoaks I have are in my woods and are surrounded by underbrush, poison oak, and green briars. Those types of trees are rarely over 30' tall. Others growing along creek banks or in creek bottoms will be 50' tall and have large diameter trunks. I've seen many suggestions for improving tree health, but the most honest arborists will tell you that at best, it's a roll of the dice.

Where I grew up in Denton, Tx, we had a big postoak in the corner of our yard. The dirt road made a 90 degree turn at that tree. What started out as a sandy lane turned into a gravel road and then a paved street. The only thing that kept the street and people from cutting the corner and driving in our yard was this big postoak. The soil there was deep and sandy with a water table down around 25 feet. My guess is the roots went so deep that anything on the surface didn't matter. The tree was healthy until it was pushed over during excavation after I sold the property. My current house is on a rocky shelf of hard caliche. Topsoil is very thin and water penetrates it and then disperses quickly due to the hard caliche. Water cannot soak in deep because of the rock just below the surface. The trees have found footholds in this soil, but their roots are shallow. My fat behind on a riding mower is probably more than they like.:ashamed::laughing:

 

[Bird]

None of my trees are dead yet, but the 3 Bradford Pears and the one big Crepe Myrtle are really showing the stress more than the 2 live oaks.

 

[pacerron]

None of my trees are dead yet, but the 3 Bradford Pears and the one big Crepe Myrtle are really showing the stress more than the 2 live oaks.

Bird,
I was wondering if the "Oak Wilt disease" has been correlated to be spreading more rapidly in summers that are extremely hot and dry in Texas?
Ron

 

[Western]

Here are a few photos I took while out checking my feeder this morning. You can see the undergrowth has been severely effected and the Oak tree's are starting to decline in some areas. I am loosing more than I thought.

You can see my dry pond and the trees in the background, at least I have been able to dig out some silt, but now it is almost to hard. Wife's Cactus "patch" is doing ok, but needs water every week which is unusual. even the cactus growing else where on the place is drying out.

 

[jinman]

Very nice cactus garden Dennis. It looks great! Your trees look just like mine. I think some of my trees where I've cleared underbrush look much worse than the others because the sun can penetrate and dry up the ground. The wooded goat pasture across the road from me looks very healthy with a lot less stress.

 

[pacerron]

Very nice cactus garden Dennis. It looks great! Your trees look just like mine. I think some of my trees where I've cleared underbrush look much worse than the others because the sun can penetrate and dry up the ground. The wooded goat pasture across the road from me looks very healthy with a lot less stress.

Goats are used to clear the brush up here. Saves diesel!
The coon hasn't been back or maybe he was and got his nose stung.

 

[Western]

Thanks Jim, All but one of the cactus are native and most from my property here. One I got while Turkey hunting in West Texas about 6 years ago and has been dug up and moved twice.

Place wher I have removed the underbrush and allowed native grasses to return, look little different. It is either dead /dormant grass, or dead dormant underbrush:laughing:

 

[Larry Caldwell]

The stress on the trees and grass in this area seems to become more noticeable each day. And another very noticeable thing is dry, brown grass spots in nearly all the green grass that's been watered, including my own.

That might be bugs. Stressed plants are particularly susceptible to insect damage, and insects love warm temperatures. Check with your local extension agent. It may be that watering in some diazanon would help.