It’s time to stop pruning oaks | Home & Backyard

“The ideal way to avoid the unfold of oak wilt is to not prune any oak tree concerning the stop of March and the commence of Oct,” explained Tivon Feeley, forest well being software chief with the Iowa Department of Organic Sources. “However, the heat weather problems reveal that spring may be a bit early this yr and for that motive, we endorse finishing your oak pruning by the finish of the second week in March.”

Oak wilt is prompted by a fungus and has been present in the Midwest for quite a few several years. It most commonly impacts red, black and pin oaks, but can also infect white and bur oaks. If black, pin, or red oak are infected by the fungus they usually die inside the exact summer time they are infected. White oak and bur oak can usually choose a quantity of yrs ahead of they succumb.

“A nutritious tree can be contaminated by this fungus two diverse methods. The initial is by means of open wounds during the growing year where by the fungus is carried from a diseased tree to a nutritious tree by a tiny beetle,” Feeley said.

“The second is by way of root grafts among oak trees of the similar species. For illustration, if a red oak is contaminated and there is a different purple oak inside of 50 to 100 toes there is a very good likelihood that the roots of these trees are grafted and the fungus can shift from the diseased tree to the balanced tree.”