Oak wilt? Chinquapins are reported to be more resistant than the red oaks but no oak species is immune. This is a vascular disease and death can be very rapid....just a matter of a few days to a week.

It s a major concern to oaks in TX........

Yes, but no oak wilt in my county. Something vascular...I’ll look that up

It is found all over the country!! Are you sure it's not in your county??

First thing I did was call my Ext office and they told me they had no confirmed cases. I also called the Nursery where I bought it and asked about any reported problems, I will follow up, just in case I was an early casualty.

I’d be very, very surprised if it was Oak Wilt.

Types of white oaks are most susceptible to drastic environmental changes, and a hurricane would certainly be just that, even if the tree wasn’t flooded. And of course, there are other pathogens that can hit oaks. Post Oaks were hit particularly hard a few years ago by one, can’t remember the name,

But Chinkapins are known to be more resistant to diseases, and tougher than other white oaks, so I’m really curious about what happened. Sorry you lost it, they’re wonderful trees. :(

That is really sad, I love the foliage on Chinkapins! Maybe it had root damage due to the high water table evn though you saw no actual flooding?

PK, that’s just about the only thing that makes sense.

I was about to suggest seasonal poor drainage, but if your amaryllis in another thread survived Harvey's inundation, why would your chinkapin oak be susceptible to root rot? Isn't oak wilt in these parts most often induced by prolonged drought? A head-scratcher for sure, and also tragic. Q. muhlenbergii is among the most beautiful shade trees in Texas.

I know re: beauty. Cherry bark oak is waiting in the wings.

we had heavy rains in 2016 also so perhaps my C. Oak said: enough is enough!

Another possibility is root girdle, but wouldn't that kill a tree long before the 10-year mark?

The day was so lovely that DH got all fired up and cut the tree

As we were collecting debris, I noticed teeny tiny acorns. Would have been the first year, sniff. 9 man-hour job. We’ll sleep well tonight

Firewood for next season

Irving, I think it drowned. There was no insect damage, no diseased bark, nothing.

That’s right. I lost zero hippies and I even have some caladiums from last year popping up. Crazy!

Wipe your blade with a bleach water mixture or you will spread the disease . I have also heard talk that it is not good to burn diseased oak wilt wood. I do not know if that is hearsay. You might want to look into it. I make sure every one dips their blade before they work on my land.

Mara it wasn’t oak wilt. I think it just drowned.

i used to think tool sanitation was anal. No more. I do clean my tools and would have certainly done so in this case. If you look at wood, it was pretty intact. I do worry about the landscape services as I doubt they do any sanitation. But we hire few third parties, usually only for disasters like tornado, etc.

only about 5% of residents on our subdiv. do their own yard work. Yesterday while DH, our Saturday helper and I were working on tree, a woman stopped and wanted to know our fees. When I said this was our house, she apologized profusely. I told her, “you are making it worse, God bless the yard men of this world, it’s noble work and I’m not in the least offended.” Then I laughed to assure her I was not insulted and my household does not react to shaming or prejudice of any kind. Sticks and stones....and all that. Come to think of it, I should have given her a plant. Oh well, there’ll be another incident, I’ll be ready, ha.

Oak wilt is usually much slower. GG, Oak wilt of the west coast variety is a different disease and it is much quicker. It can take up to 5 years for a tree to go down. Usually quicker than that but still much slower than the west coast.

My leaves were always nice and green. On the pictures I see, there this rusting/yellowing taking place.

I'd suggest a bit more research .-) It is the same pathogen - Ceratocystis fagacearum - regardless of where it occurs. And it can produce a very rapid decline....often in a single growing season for the red oak group; somewhat less rapidly in the white oak group.

btw, SOD or Phytophthera ramorum is an entirely different issue and I was not referring to that....only oak wilt. SOD is a water mold or soil borne fungal issue and it is not transmitted by root grafting, pruning or insect vectors like oak wilt is.

If I understand your situation correctly, if oak wilt is the culprit, it would be the first known case in your county? It can become an epidemic in Travis Co. when rainfall drops below the average of 32 in./year, and the victims are almost always evergreen oaks, not deciduous white oaks. How much rain did Harvey drop on you? Have you examined the roots for signs of rot due to seasonal flooding?

You do your own yard work? What's the world coming to?

Here is map of Oak Wilt distribution in TX.

the only co with reported cases of OW in SE TX is Harris county, has a little blue star, lower right hand corner of pic. My county has no reported cases. BUT, this is not unlike the flu, a little more carelessness, a little more poor sanitation, a little more cases under the radar and OW could be present in the entire state.

Irving, we are in the 5% minority’s that does their own yard, but we do have help 4 hrs/wk.

Here are more graphics on the subject. Couldn’t tell how recent this is.

http://www.utsa.edu/LRSG/Teaching/EES5053-06/project/MAPPING%20OAK%20WILT%20IN%20TEXAS.ppt

@GG. I was not aware the y'all had OW on the west coast. It does not show up one the distribution maps. I was referring to SOD. We sometimes refer to OW as Oak Decline and that does confuse the issue. I am in the middle of a OW hotspot . It is worse just west and south of us ... Acres and acres of it on the way to kerrville and fredericksburg. It is very depressing. I see it in trees , just a mile from me, maybe less..

BV, it is not opening for me....oh well.

I googled OW distribution map Texas, it led me to utsa.edu

This is a cross section of a piece of trunk

Anybody ever seen something like that? This is NOT the exterior. This is the inside of the trunk

Oh Wow, Could that be mold or fungus?

You remember, our area did get 30" of rain.

PKPonder said it first that even though tree wasn’t under water, perhaps the water table was high enough that it drowned that way.

fungus! That’s exactly what it looks like.

I googled white fungus and I found this pic, a very mild case as compared with my tree. Excessive moisture definitely the culprit. So odd as the tree was majestic looking, as opposed to other old trees on the property which aren’t nearly as imposing but still standing.

That is a dramatic amount of fungus, BossyVossy! No wonder it met with an untimely death.

Based on fungus amount, it would seem this might’ve started very early on, even b4 the excess moisture of 2016, 2017