Don’t Prune Your Oak Trees During The Summer Months

In our last post, we began talking about tree care and what you can do to ensure that the trees in your lawn remain healthy and able to continue to grow. One of the most important aspects of keeping your trees in good shape is to prune them, as can be seen in our infographic from our last post. However, there are some trees that don’t need to be pruned during the summer months and it’s important to know which ones and why.

Do you have oak trees in your yard?

If you are lucky enough to have oaks, it’s likely that you are very fond of them. These big beautiful trees are great for shade and they also add to how aesthetically appealing your home is. If you have an oak, it’s likely that you also know a bit about deadly oak wilt disease. If you’re not, allow us to give you a bit more information.

Oak Wilt

As an aggressive, tree-killing disease, Oak wilt is a fungus that will enter the water-conducting vessels of the tree through fresh wounds or the roots. The disease works to hinder the sap flow in the vessels, leaving the foliage of the tree to wilt. This can ultimately lead to the entire tree dying.

Why shouldn’t oaks be trimmed in the summer?

As we mentioned before, pruning your oaks in the summer will greatly increase your risk of getting oak wilt. But how does it happen? The main culprit is sap beetles. They like to venture around your yard between the months of April and August and they love the smell of anything sweet. What has a sweet smell? You guessed it! Oak wilt.

When a beetle finds a tree with oak wilt to snack on, they will continue to do so until they are full. At that point, the beetle will fly to other trees, while carrying oak wilt spores and likely infect them as well.

If you get oak wilt

The worst part of oak wilt is that if one tree gets it in your yard, every other tree is at risk. This means that when you do discover that a tree has oak wilt, you need to have it removed immediately. Depending on how severe the oak wilt is, you may be better off cutting your losses when it comes to several trees in the yard since oak wilt can spread through root systems.

Look out for oak wilt symptoms

If you want to make sure you are not going to lose your oaks to this disease, our first piece of advice is to, of course, not prune your oak trees during the summer. Additionally, you should keep an eye out for any symptoms so that in the case that one of your trees becomes infected, you can try to save the rest quickly. The symptoms of oak wilt are wilting, browning, and excessive shedding of the leaves. If you see any of these signs, scrape one or two inches of bark on a branch that contains wilted leaves and look for streaking. If you see it, you have oak wilt.

Need help from the professional?

If you think you have oak wilt or you need help removing a tree from your lawn, Impeccable Landscapes can help! Give us a call today and get the answers to your most pressing questions. As the lawn care experts in Spokane, we know how to handle all of your tree or lawn related problems. Don’t wait until it’s too late! Contact the tree care team at Impeccable Landscapes today and find what you are looking for all in one place.