You might check out these two web sites. The first one is about a disease called oak wilt (leaves usually brown out on the tree before falling). The second is on sudden oak death.

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/howtos/ht_oakwilt/toc.htm\

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/pest_al/sodeast/sodeast.htm

It sounds like Sudden Oak Death(the 2nd link posted above) to me. You can give your Oak tree another month and see if it pushes out any growth anywhere. If not, then it's most likely dead.

Is SOD in USDA 5 all of a sudden?! AFAIK, SOD is still confined to the Pacific states.

This is a symptom of a vascular or root pathogen from the scant information given. I'm inclined toward vascular if the claim is true that it happened all of a sudden with no other symptoms the year before (trees rarely die all of a sudden and I suspect there were symptoms for one or more years prior to death).

There is no way for us all to know if it is dead. You can't know for sure without calling an arborist.

Dan

My bad, a little dyslexia there on my part. I was talking about Oak Wilt, not SOD. Which is the 1st link posted above. I haven't heard of any confirmed reports of SOD here in Kansas, nor outside of the West Coast actually. I've heard some concern about the Wilt Disease(it appears to be different than typical Oak Wilt) in Texas working its way North though. But I haven't seen any sign that is happening.

Oak wilt was my first thought as well, but the statement about 'falling off green' confuses the issue, so something vascular maybe if true?

Dan

Yes, the falling off green part doesn't fit, and doesn't sound like any disease/pest I've seen on Oaks before. Even severe drought causes wilted leaves and death, rather than dropping green leaves.

I have seen old Oaks that were once part of an old fence line, in which they grew over and enveloped the barbed wire, but eventually became girdled by it, dying in a similar fashion. Although they usually heavily resprout from near their base soon afterwards. I've seen this when there's no signs of the old fence anymore because of clearing and the tree in question was now in someone's yard or around their homestead.

When is last time the oak was trimmed, and was it trimmed during warm/hot weather? My tree trimmer tells me oak wilt often starts a year or so after a warm weather trimming.

My tree trimmer tells me oak wilt often starts a year or so after a warm weather trimming.

Yes, the presentation a few weeks ago just before mine had data & conclusions to that effect.

The issue above, however, is the 'falling off green' and the need for more information.

Dan

The tree was trimmed last spring, although it had started leafing out already. It was later in summer and all summer that it kept shedding it's leaves. They would fall still green and I did notice that some of the leaves had some kind of a brown or tan round spot on them about the size of an M&M.

Abscising green...one section of tree first...trimming oaks after leaf-out...very interesting. Surely a good example of why we must take good care when cutting plant tissue.

Sure does sound, from here, like a pathogen entering through a wound. But the green abscission of leaves sounds vascular and I wonder if the brown necrosis is an adventitious fungus. Although I wonder if the abscising is coincidental and the pathogen was already extant in the tree.

Where was this 'spot' on the leaves? Was it in the same place all the time? Any flowers or leaf buds yet?! Do you see any sawdusty-looking plug things on the trunk of the affected tree? Was the first leaf loss section where there were cuts made?

This is a good one IMHO.

Dan

Sorry it's taken me this long to respond, I was gone for a few days. these spots would be randomly on the leaves and not many, although they were kind of warty feeling. Yes there are very few leaf buds just here and there, not very hopeful at this point. I have seen nothing that looks like sawdust on or around the tree. Yes the first leaf loss started above the section that was trimmed. My husband says he remembers from years back when he worked for Davey Tree Service , there was talk about a bug called the Sawfly which caused problems on oak trees. have you any knowledge on this?

There are various Oak pests which can potentially kill an Oak, but usually the tree is already stressed and/or in poor condition to begin with. I suspect your tree has been having problems for several years before you noticed anything. Trees, especially long lived Oaks, don't tend to show obvious signs(immediately noticeable with a glance or general look at the tree) of stress and/or decline for many years after the problem started. The thing that throws us off is the dropping green leaves part. Most all Oak decline and death is marked by the wilting of leaves or leaves turning brown and then dropping. The warty spots you describe sound like some form of Oak gall, which in a relatively healthy Oak is harmless.

This probably doesn't matter, but do you know which kind of Oak you have? I don't think any of us bothered to ask in all of this. Also, which part of the country is the Oak in question? I know Gypsy Moth infestations tend to hit most Oaks rather hard, but the leaves are eaten off, more than dropping off green.

I believe it is a Pin Oak. i live in Northeast Ohio. To look at the tree it looks healthy, there isn't any thing on the trunk or limbs that would make you suspect any disease. I have lived here 3 years and it never acted strange till last summer. I've never seen any Gypsy moth on it. I also have numerous other Oak trees on my property, some close to the one in questio, and they show no sign of a problem.

100+ yr old Oak Tree-leaves long narrow-Pin Oak?? Not sure.
80+ ft tall; 12 ft trunk circumference. Recently experiencing small pieces and clusters of green leaves falling from tree; good green leaves-see no brown-appears to look at end of cluster on wood like just picked off. Just this am, after last night's rain, see sawdust sprinkles around base of tree and still falling. Had an orange fungus aroung tree root on pavement last year we treated. Tree has had mold on trunk for several years.
We currently experiencing late afternoon rain due to humity and heat. What's the tree's problem? Tree is close to house; we see lots of green; needs to be pruned, but doesn't look like it's dying.

A picture would help tremendously. Perhaps they punctured the bark enough to injure it when trimming the tree. That can cause all sorts of critters to get in there and kill the tree.

I've got a Schumart Oak planted 4 years ago with exactly the same symptoms. The tree has always thrived. Within two days, it lost 75 percent of its leaves. The leaves were all green and healthy looking. No sign of a cause. A few new buds but not much. Another Schumart Oak, planted 1 year ago, looks fine. The dying tree likely receives 50 percent more water than the good one due to sprinkler system layout. Could it be too much water?

[I'm reposting this from my account in the hopes that the moderators will be able to delete my prior post that displays my e-mail address.]

I found this thread while searching for information on what's going on with my red oak. I live W of Boston and suddenly one of my many red oak trees started dropping leaves from the bottom branches. This morning I watched leaves rain down from the branches when a breeze came through.

This has been a very normal summer. While it was hot in July, it's dropped back to seasonable temperatures. We've had over 7" of rain in August and I have a lawn irrigation system that waters the area that the tree is in.

I've read the descriptions of SOD and SOW. Both SOD and SOW seems to start at the top, so that doesn't match. I'm stumped.

The leaves seem to darken & turn slightly brown & then drop while still green. The tree hasn't been pruned in years and nothing has been done to base in a long time. The hosta probably went in 5+ years ago.

I've included a link to a photo album showing a dropped leaf, the base of the tree and the entire tree.

Thanks, Geoff

Here is a link that might be useful: Tree Photo Album

Your going to have to get close-up pictures, I don't think anyone will be able to give any help unless you get close ups.

Close ups of what? There's a closeup of the leaf. What else are you looking for?

-- Geoff

P.S. You did view the images and not just the thumbnails on the index page, right?