In a corner of my woods all the white oak, not the reds, have these white looking spots (see picture). Some, but not all have diseased looking branches. It is like some kind of spots on the trunks and up the tree. Any ideas what this is?
![[Hearth.com] White Oak - Is this disease or does anyone know what is causing it?](https://www.hearth.com/talk/attachments/oak-tree-webp.192966/ "[Hearth.com] White Oak - Is this disease or does anyone know what is causing it?")
White Oak - Is this disease or does anyone know what is causing it?
- Thread starter Catfish Hunter
- Start date
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mark cline
Minister of Fire
Looks like Armillaria Root Rot , on and under the bark of the infected area, you should see white thread mycellium . This is how it spreads . It may take 2-3 yrs for the tree to die , so the only preventative ,is to remove the infected trees. The larger the growths, the more advanced the disease has become. Cut the trees with the largest growths, these trees will die off first
Just to throw in my two cents on species diversity...oak trees unfortunately make quite a big root network and if you haven't thinned them enough, they can spread disease this way. Maintaining 50 ft distance between the trees helps limit the spread of disease, which generally means that most of us in the upper Midwest need to thin the woods quite significantly.
It's hard to do though, because a stand of mature oaks is something most people like to have.
The downside of course is, when they all die, you have a patch of mostly bare ground, since oaks tend to smother everything under them.
It's hard to do though, because a stand of mature oaks is something most people like to have.
The downside of course is, when they all die, you have a patch of mostly bare ground, since oaks tend to smother everything under them.
Coog
Burning Hunk
Yah that white stuff means the tree is running out of time. We had a number of them with that and like Mark Cline said, 2 to 3 years. I was sad at first but after I started burning it I got over it. White oak is probably my favorite to burn.....slow and hot......once to finally dries.
Looks like a saprophite of some kind. This decay fungi attacks living sapwood- quite quickly at that. My advice if you want to burn them is get them down sooner than later. Doesn't look like armillaria to me. Typically armillaria grows a cluster of mushrooms that are honey coloured with a ring on the stem. Mark was correct in that there should be a mycellial mat that looks like little black tree roots.
It is sad that they all have to go, but at least I can burn them. Some I will probably mill into boards if they are still good. (Lots of work to do now!!) Thanks for all the help and advice!
