You should have seen one of mine, I have 3 from the same source. The 2 uphill looked okay, but my downslope one looked worse than yours, it had brown edges and a bagworm infection. I need to use BT next season. I just let them defoliate it, as it was the end of the growing season by then anyway. Is your area humid enough for the mold? My soil is mostly neutral so I can't help much with the PH thing, but, I have a book that mentions England as being calcerous in many areas and it is of course the "English oak". I am basically repeating what hairmetal said about PH.

I'd suggest sending the pics to the extension office. The service is free and if it isn't in your county then just use Waukesha county. They will give you direction and if you want confirmation you will have to pay to test it. I don't think you have wilt but if the ext office thinks you do, you might want to pony up to confirm. It will wipe out stands of oaks as the disease is easily spread from one oak to another either by interconnecting roots and from insects. From what you're telling us with multiple trees being effected and slowly dieing you might want to take this a bit more seriously and ditch GW for advice...hmm...maybe you shouldn't be taking mine... and get a professional involved on site.

in suburbia.. i would have paid for stump removal ... just due to lack of space ... on 5 acres now.. a rotting stump is one more attraction in the garden... so.. how much property do you have.. and do you need the space???? only you can answer this ... for wood to rot .. it needs water .. and nitrogen ... to speed rotting.. drill holes into the stump ... and insert 49-0-0 .. or any extra fert with high nitro ... and put a sprinkler on it.. and keep it dampish ... or.. ignore it.. since you dont need the space ... if cut flat enough.. you can cover it with pots.. and grow things in the pots.. and the run off from the pots will aid in rotting... with my kids.. little dirt monkeys.. i do not bother adding the fert ... no need for them to play in those caustic white lumps of fertilizer ... cheap tree cutters are not necessarily the best... make sure whoever you hire.. has full insurance for you and himself... like work comp .... WHATEVER you do ... depending on whether the disease can spread.. consider retaining the wood chips and the firewood.. unless some tree expert tells you this could threaten your other trees .... though some will tell you that the other trees are threatened by the disease ... honest tree peeps should also say that otherwise healthy trees should not necessarily be prone to the disease ... so whether you keep the wood chips is a hard decision .... i am no disease expert ... and will defer entirely .... in other words... the disease may not have killed the tree ... the disease may have come along to 'finish off' and otherwise dying tree .... good luck ken

To prevent Oak Wilt, an often fatal fungal disease, Oak trees should not be pruned between mid-April till the end of June. To be on the safe side wait till Fall or apply a wound dressing after that. Spring is really the worst time to prune any deciduous trees. You can check with the DNR or your local extension office for alot of great info on this.