Help save a white oak

[feptp]

I have a  nice size white oak in my yard damaged by construction that I would like to save.  The builder put the septic on one side and a storm water mgmt pit on the other  cutting roots on 2 sides.    This took place 2.5 years ago.  The tree was sparse last year.  I recently had had a couple of "tree" people out.  They both said wait till it leafs out so they can see how much is alive before recommending treatement , but differ as to the method of treatement if they feel it is salvagable.  One wants to put about 12  syringe type of injections thru the bark directly into the tree, claiming it will immediately help, the other recommends against that because it is a shortterm fix and instead wants to do a deep root feeding which will take a couple of months to see results but will provide much more long term nourishment lasting 2 years.  Does anyone have an opinion or other suggestions as to what may be best.

[Greg]

I have a  nice size white oak in my yard damaged by construction that I would like to save.  The builder put the septic on one side and a storm water mgmt pit on the other  cutting roots on 2 sides.    This took place 2.5 years ago.  The tree was sparse last year.  I recently had had a couple of "tree" people out.  They both said wait till it leafs out so they can see how much is alive before recommending treatement , but differ as to the method of treatement if they feel it is salvagable.  One wants to put about 12  syringe type of injections thru the bark directly into the tree, claiming it will immediately help, the other recommends against that because it is a shortterm fix and instead wants to do a deep root feeding which will take a couple of months to see results but will provide much more long term nourishment lasting 2 years.  Does anyone have an opinion or other suggestions as to what may be best.

Its hard to lose wonderful o;d trees that we love in our yards, but my honest advice is:

Don't throw money down that hole.

Good luck to you and your oak.

I've got two beautiful, but waning, OLD white pines right in front of my house - so I'll be faced with the same question soon enough.

Greg

[Jeff]

I agree on throwing money in a hole. Could be the tree is stressed from the construction, but that was 2 and a half years ago. It could be that the sparsity of the leaves could be from other factors.
Example:
In the Lower Peninsula of Michigan 2001, late spring frosts damaged new growth on oak trees in low -lying areas. Some oak stands were affected for the second consecutive year. Most trees refoliated by late June. Wet, cool spring weather led to a widespread outbreak of hardwood anthracnose across the Lower Peninsula in 2001. This disease was common on white oak. Many homeowners confused the symptoms of this disease with oak wilt. Because anthracnose is usually isolated to the leaves, trees rarely suffer long term effects. Raking and bagging infected leaves may help reduce the spread of the disease.

[Bud Man]

I think too many builders press forward too recklessly and with little regard to the survival of the trees present on a building site !   Why not approach the builder and see if he won't pay for one or both of the proposed remedies ? I've  heard many new homeowners dilemmas about having large trees die within a year or two and having to not only lose trees but then having to pay for the removal of dangerous trees overhanging their new homes.   Hope your able to save it, good luck !

[swampwhiteoak]

Hard to say without seeing the damage, but I like the idea of deep root feeding better than bark injection.  Don't we have an arborist on here?  

Of course it would have been best to consider damage to your tree prior to septic and stormwater construction but I suppose it is too late for that.  Good luck and I hope your tree pulls out of it!  

[beenthere]

Hopefully the tree wasn't backfilled against the bole of the tree, raising the level of the dirt above what it was before the construction. White oak doesn't take that very well. Bringing dirt up around a white oak seems to smother the cambium layer, killing it in a short amount of time.

[Tillaway]

The bole injections and root feeding are just expensive ways to apply fertilizer.  Do it yourself with any regular fertilizer (NO WEED AND FEED!) that is very high in P and K.  Look for a slow release type.  Just poke a hole in the ground with a stake, pipe or something about a foot deep and fill it then cover it.  The rate of fertilizer to apply this way varys with diameter of the tree.  I don't have the rates right here handy but there is a table for this.  A large tree can require quite a bit so search around and see if you can find the table.  If you don't mind the fertilizer just sitting on top the ground then just scatter or ring the tree around the drip ring with this.  I forgot, poke the holes under the drip ring not right against the bole.

Wait and see what if there is die back on the tree.  Be sure that the limbs or twigs are really dead before you prune them off.  As Jeff mentioned disease can be a culprit with leaf die off so use that as an indicator to look further.  You definitely want to prune off any dead material.  There are also live limbs you could cut to bring the crown back proportion with the root system, but try this first.  It will save you money and do allot better job than root or bole injections.

I worked a "few" years for an aborist.  Learned a couple tricks, but I am no expert.

[Frank_Pender]

Perhaps you recall, Tillaway, here in the Willamette Valley several years ago we dhad a scare about all out Oaks die due to a leaf blite.  Come to find out this is simply a cycle that many areas go through.  I am not saying this is the problem with this Oak, but all of mine and a thousands of others looked really rough for a couple of years.  I'll bet though, the biggest problem has been the tampering with the root system.  Most Oak trees out here are pretty hardy.  I have one that was the official notice tree in this area for decades.  It is at least 250 plust years in age and has been on the edge of the drive and county road for this farm since it was homesteaded in 1847.   Now that is tollerance to mankind as far as I am concerned.  I have even had a couple of people smack it with their vehicles.  

[Chet]

Feptp, it's really tough to answer your questions with the limited backround you gave us. Things that need to be asked are: how old is the tree, soil conditions, changes in drainage, how close and how deep was this digging, what was trees condition pior to work, were other trees removed in the immediate area, just to name a few. With the slow die-off you are describing I would think the problem is more of a result of the drainage changes caused by the digging for the septic and stormdrain.  For the money Tillaway's suggestion is the wisest.

[IndyIan]

Here's a site full of arborists!  http://arboristsite.com
Doing some searches in the forums will probably give you a better idea what's going on with the tree.

Here's another good tree health link.
http://www.chesco.com/~treeman/SHIGO/index.html

I do like the idea of doing autopsy's (arboropsy's? ) on dead trees to see what happened.  

Ian