Show a close up of the white substance. Yes, that's probably sapsucker holes.

Thanks for the reply. Here are some a bit closer.

I think that is signs of a fungal infection...it *could* be sudden oak death. But in any case, not a good thing and probably absolutely nothing you can do about it.

The only thing I can seem to find that looks anything like this is Shelf Fungus.... Plus like you said there is nothing I can do about it.

looks like a combination of a fungal infection and some kind of borer insect.

That fungus is a very bad sign. At least that side of the trunk is probably dead.

probably borer holes that has killed your tree, dead and don't know it yet! The borer has done his job and left you a dying tree.

The leaves for the most part look good, but the condition of the trunk compared to the other red oak doesn't. I guess it's time to look for another 200 gallon red oak to plant. Thanks for everyone's help on this.

no ..... the canopy looks thin ...

first pic.. starting about a foot up from the holes ... there is a depression in the bark.. and it continues down toward the ground.. past the shrooms ...

i suspect death and bugs under the bark ... hence to bug eaters trying to get at them.. as well as the shrooms furthering the decay ...

i have no clue the cause ... i would at a min.. plant a replacement.. so it can get moving.. while you watch this one die.. in tree years ...

or just be done with it and plant something new.. IN THE NEXT PROPER PLANTING SEASON ... which is not july or august just about anywhere ... unless done professionally with a warranty ...

personally i would not go beyond a 4 to 6 footer .... and i have no clue why such would be in a 200 gallon pot ...

ken

ps: if you do remove.. could you slice open the bark .. and take some pix.. so we can talk about it all???

Ken what is wrong with planting a 200 gallon tree as a replacement? I just want to get a head start on the tree size instead of planting a smaller tree and waiting for them to grow. Is that a bad idea on my part?

Sure I'll be happy to slice it open and take a bunch of pictures. Hopefully this thread will help someone else out in the future.

A smaller tree (with less root loss by digging/potting) usually outperforms a large tree transplant effort.

if thats what you did here.. and ended up with this ... which could be an injury that dates back years ...

then how did you get a head start ???

i would presume something in a 200 .. would be field dug.. and that was when it MIGHT have been damaged ..

would you plant something like that yourself???

do whatever makes you happy ... is the bottom line..

ken

I planted 6 200 gallon red oaks at the same time and this is the only one I have had a issue with. If it takes years for this to happen then the tree might have been sick when I bought it, but who knows. No one bats a thousand my friends.

Just a FYI it took 5 of us to plant these. That was one fun day. :)

I'll be taking this tree down at the start of fall and will repost pictures for everyone when I cut it up.

The shelf fungus is simply not what is ailing this tree. It just doesn't work that way, folks. It is at worst, a second or third-order decomposer which is only present because something else weakened the tree first. The holes are probably exit holes for one type of wood borer or another-there's lots of different types. Not sapsucker damage, no way.

The crown is thin. Doesn't mean the tree is doomed, but something has weakened it and sometimes, we just don't know what that something might be.

cmiller, it was hinted at in the dialogue above, but it has now been conclusively shown that transplanting very large trees is mostly a waste of time, money, and energy. Smaller transplants easily overtake their larger neighbors, outperform them and in relatively little time, will out grow them. Some of us have known this for decades...it's not a new thing.