Learn How To Care For Oak Trees Like A Professional!
Oak trees are hardy landscaping plants with their spherical forms and leafy limbs. Deciduous oak trees offer welcome relief from the heat in the summer, while evergreen oaks add beauty all year long.
It is quite easy to understand that tending to an oak tree will be a matter of importance to a landscaper. So, in today’s article, we will be telling you how to care for oak trees.
When it comes to oak trees, the flora thrives throughout the colder months but withers during the summer, leaving a landscape of golden grassland and plants. Oak is a low-maintenance species, and it is not difficult to replicate the ideal conditions needed by this tree.
Skip To
- How To Take Care of Oak Trees
- Oak Tree Diseases and Treatment
- How Do You Care for An Old Oak Tree?
- Newly Planted Live Oak Trees Vs. Old Oak
- Tips for Great Oak Tree Health
- FAQs
- Summing Up…
How to Plant and Care for a Live Oak Tree
Here’s how to care for newly planted live oak tree in 5 easy steps:
A. Planting
It’s important only to choose drought-resistant plants that won’t die without water during the warmer months to be placed in the soil near oak trees. Keep them at a distance of 6 feet or more from the trunks of your oak trees to ensure enough air circulation.
B. Tips For Watering Oak trees
To thrive, oak trees need plenty of water and enough space to spread their roots. Watering oak trees in the winter is unnecessary if rainfall is good. Oak trees can be saved from a drought by receiving heavy spring rain.
C. Sunlight requirement
Oak trees are remarkably adaptable, thriving in anything from full sun to nearly total shadow and on rich sandy soils. However, it grows more slowly in direct sunshine than in the shade and has a hard time surviving in the dark.
D. What’s the best fertilizer for live oak trees?
If you’re looking for how to take care of oak trees, know that fertilizer is essential for the growth and continued health of oak trees of all ages, from saplings to mature oaks.
Rainfall will assist in flushing the minerals through the soil and allowing them to permeate all regions of the root system, making spring and late summer/fall ideal times to fertilize.
Using a nitrogen-based fertilizer, which the neighboring lawn may also like, is safe.
Here is how to fertilize oak trees.
E. Maintenance: Oak tree Trimming and Pruning
Perennial oak trees prefer not to have their branches pruned, while deciduous oak trees must have their branches pruned regularly. Trimming oak trees lightly in the spring and fall is fine, but you should avoid doing so from March through July when little beetles spread oak wilting, a fungal infection that discolors and destroys oak leaves.
Diseases and The Best Treatment For Oak Tree
When learning how to care for oak trees, you should also look for diseases and their treatments. Here’s a list of some of the common oak tree diseases:
A. Armillaria root rot
Multiple Armillaria fungus species are responsible for root rot. This disease results in stunted development or mortality of the tree, characterized by chlorotic leaves.
Treatments:
- Integrating mulch into the ground near a tree’s root
- Water the tree more frequently during dry spells.
- Make sure machines don’t injure trees.
- Take out the diseased roots and the stubs.
B. Oak Leaf Blister
The fungus Taphrina caeruleulata causes oak leaf blister, a fungal leaf disease. Almost all oak varieties are susceptible to this fungus during the springtime’s chilly and damp growing season.
Treatments:
- Oak leaf blister can be prevented with a single fungicide treatment in the spring when the bud is swollen and has not yet burst.
- A power sprayer can be used to apply a fungicide effective against Taphrina caerulescens, completely covering the buds and twigs.
- It is recommended that chlorothalonil, an organic substance used as a broad range, non-systemic fungicide, be used to manage oak leaf blister.
C. Leaf Patch
Several potential causes of leaf spots, including insect infestations and bacterial infections. Pathogenic fungi are the most common cause. After invading the leaf, fungi spread and eventually cause tissue death.
While looking for ways to learn how to take care of oak trees, also keep an eye out for this.
Treatments:
- Fall leaves must be raked up and disposed of. It can host fungus or bacteria that survive the winter in this leaf litter.
- Keep watering and splashing to a minimum, or avoid doing it from above.
- Use only clean, sanitized tools to trim your trees.
How Do You Care for An Old Oak Tree?
Numerous enormous old trees require specific attention and knowledge of their physical features; you should know this if you’re looking for how to care for oak trees.
If an older tree is leaning, lopsided, or has an extensive branch gap that is too high or too narrow, it may benefit from having some branches shortened to reduce the weight-bearing capacity of the tree.
The healthiest branches on a tree are the ones that grow at right angles to the trunk and outwards to the side, rather than the V-shaped ones that are weak and prone to breaking.
Newly Planted Live Oak Trees Vs. Old Oak Care
Here’s how to care for newly planted live oak tree:
Providing ample moisture to your live oak while it adjusts to its new environment is essential during the first several months.
Once a week, give the tree a good soaking watering to keep it healthy. You can gradually decrease the frequency of your waterings to once every 2 weeks and once a month once the tree is in its new position for a few months.
Here’s how to take care of old oak trees:
The removal of grass from under a tree’s canopy can help it survive in old age by diverting resources that would otherwise be used to maintain the grass. The removal of grass from under a tree’s canopy allows more energy to be sent into the tree, allowing it to survive and thrive in old age.
Mature trees abandon their lower and inner limbs in favor of supporting their upper and exterior limbs. Old trees have the exact high water needs as young ones. During dry spells, watering the enormous roots is of utmost importance.
Tips for Great Oak Tree Health
Here are some tips for your oak tree’s health if you’re towards the end of your quest to learn how to care for oak trees:
- Concerning winter temperatures, specific oak varieties have relatively limited plant hardiness zones, whereas other oak species can tolerate much more variation.
- Plant hardiness zones determine which oak trees would thrive in a given area. Nonetheless, oaks are widely regarded as trees that require little care. But make sure you give the oak tree the little care it needs.
- Provide seedlings plenty of areas to flourish, away from any nearby weeds, grasses, or other young plants. Oak trees, once planted, can survive in a broad variety of soils; however, they thrive best in moist, well-drained areas.
- If growers want to imitate fire’s positive effects, they should consider how it helps oak woodlands and forests.
- For a healthy, long-lived oak tree, make sure to give it lots of room and exposure to sunlight as it develops.
Related: Types of Red Oak | White Oak Varieties
FAQs
Q. What is the lifespan of an oak tree?
A. Oak trees (of various Quercus species) have been the subject of praise in literature, poetry, and song due to their regal bearing, sturdy build, and long lifespan. Now that we have learned how to care for live oak trees, it will contribute to their long lifespan.
Oak trees have a lifecycle that can reach up to 400 years despite their slow growth rate. If they are handled appropriately, even nursery trees have the potential to survive for centuries or longer.
Q. What are the signs of a dying oak tree?
A. Oak trees have a long lifespan. But, here are some of the signs of a dying oak tree that you should keep an eye on:
- Yellowing foliage
- Lack of foliage
- Withered top branches
- Downy mildew
- Rotting bark
- Fungal growth
- Pest or rodent infestation
Q. How can I make my oak tree grow faster?
A. Once people learn how to care for live oak trees, their next question usually resembles, how to make them grow faster? And the answer to that, dear reader, is fertilizer and proper care.
Fertilizer should be applied to a tree’s root zone after it has been planted, uprooted, or if there’s been any surrounding ground disruption. The oak tree’s growth rate will increase if done so. Sick trees may need nourishment, which fertilizer can provide in abundance.
Q. Should you mulch around oak trees?
A. Oak trees should have a layer of mulch covering their trunks with a thickness of between two and three inches so that weeds do not take over the ground and deprive the tree of moisture and nutrients.
Q. Can you overwater an oak tree?
A. The last thing you should know about how to take care of old oak trees is their water needs.
Mature oak trees rarely require watering. Unfortunately, too much water might exacerbate existing issues and even kill the tree.
Watering once a month is sufficient for mature/growing trees. Cooler months don’t require watering and during warmer months make sure you don’t overwater them causing water logging.
Summing Up…
Oaks are low-maintenance trees that do not require too much attention. You can plant them correctly once, care for them in the initial years and have a good shade tree lifelong.
