{{gwi:392067}}.

Not enough information for diagnosis.

Pictures might shed some light. Any chance of decent pictures showing results of the pruning work and the area where the branches are/were? Any idea what type of oak you have? Are the branches dead when they fall or do they seem to be ripped off from areas around where the tree was pruned (I'm imagining the possibility of topping here).

Wow, that was fast. LOL

OK, the picture is a good start. It doesn't look like the trees were topped. I still can't tell much, though, from the picture. I see dead leaves, but can't tell what else I'm really looking at. Any chance of a close-up or at least some different angles? At least one picture of the entire tree might also be helpful.

Why were the oaks pruned and can you describe what was done?

The trees had a lot of dead branches and some ball moss, the tree looked pretty ugly because they had never been pruned before. The branches seem to break off and then die.

The person who pruned the trees, removed the dead branches, removed ball moss, cleared some branches. Sprayed pruning seal on all wounds.

I will post some more pictures this evening, the sun is high up and I dont want to burn my eyes :)

The trees were never pruned before, they had some ball moss and lots of dead branches. There was not enough light passing through the trees, and there was green stuff (moss) growing on some of the branches.

The person who pruned the trees removed the dead branches, cut some of the branches so that more light could reach the lower branches, and removed limbs that had ball moss on them.

There are new leaves and branches growing from this tree after pruning, leaves look green and healthy, I am not a tree expert but I dont see symptoms of oak wilt. We had strong winds and rain in our area recently (since summer started), and we are experiencing 100+ heat. I started to see some branches break off and hang from the tree which would later die, some branches broke off and landed on branches below and on the ground. It does not seem like they died while attached to the tree.

Sprayed pruning seal on all wounds.

Sigh...well, he might have sealed a pathogen in there and it is eating its way through the tree. Not sure why one would remove ball moss either, but that shouldn't affect tree health.

Poor arboriculture practices notwithstanding, I don't really see an issue in the one picture. What is the issue?

Dan

If I just saw the picture I'd assume its a healthy tree also. Big trees get seemingly random dead branches, I see one in the picture. No big deal unless it seems higher than years past.

"Sprayed pruning seal on all wounds."

After pruning you do stand a better chance of infection. Kinda like getting surgery at the hospital. Surgery eliminates your bad gall bladder, but there an increased chance of infection. Add in big trees also don't encapsulate well, even ASSUMING the cuts were made correctly you could have an open wound for a decade so I'm not in theory against sealer. Just don't know what to use.

Even though mammals have been healing over cuts for millions of years doctors in the last hundred or so have figured again how to coat wounds in hydrogen peroxide a dab of neosporin, and a bandage.

It is my understanding tree medical care after pruning is at a point similar to the medical care George Washington received.

Any idea what the guy sprayed on there?

Moss removal, is this to lighten the load on the branches or because it didn't fit in with the rest of your yard? I could see damp moss all over a tree not helping it out and the weight of vines doesn't help out my walnuts. I'm further north so we don't get the spanish moss covered live oaks or much similar.

The guy who spoke before me at a tree conf last year claimed to have evidence that a particular sealant family improved pruning wounds on oak. His data collection and analysis wasn't the best but the argument was interesting, and the vast majority of utility arborists utterly disagreed - the folks on the ground doing it every day think sealing is a bad idea, as does almost all the recent literature over the last two decades or so...

Back to the original post, small branches die. The tree may 'decide' that the return on investment isn't worth it and shed them.

Dan

Thanks for all the answers folks, glad to hear that my tree is still healthy. All I am worried about is disease, as long as my tree is healthy I am happy.