Rockoff Tree Solutions Kerrville located these two post oak trees in Cypress Springs Estates (Ingram, Texas). The oak trees weren’t looking as healthy as they should be and the client was about to put the home on the market to sell so he wanted a diagnosis so we could help the tree. As I walked around with the client, Steve, I noticed the weed fabric along with rock right up to the tree. There were a few other scrub-type live oaks in the yard that looked okay. I noticed the tree trimming had occurred at some point in their lives – either when clearing the lot, building the home, or both. The house sat very close to the trees. I kept going over all the “other things” that could be wrong with this oak.
Root damage caused by construction during building can manifest many years later. Additionally, post oak is a tree that does not like change. If they are too wet they can drown, because they seem to freak out when their root systems are disturbed and will yellow while defoliating.
I tried to reassure the client that oak wilt on post oak was rare … blah, blah … until I took that first field sample. That limb was showing me the vascular system infected. As I removed the bark down, the streaking was very apparent. I took a sample and sent it off to the TPDDL in College Station. The sample took four weeks to get results from the lab. At that time, when I called Steve, he was angry. Which, so was I. It should not have taken four weeks to get a positive result. I explained the hold up on the lab, etc. and how they are short-staffed.
He had Joe Blow remove the infected post oak tree, where that wood ended up, we will never know. The lab asked for pictures and the wood samples if I had anything else. I did not, since the client was upset. I do hope that wood went into a chipper or burn pile because the wood could possibly have insects on it able to transmit the fungus by their bodies.
Most all of the infected trees we inject that are therapeutic treatments have ants. We now leave our minds more open to possibilities of the spread of this fungus. It sure has fascinated us to keep finding this disease in some of the most unique places. It’s even cooler to watch how many trees we save with our Chemjet injectors at chemjetus.com
