Whats killing this oak?

[tothetrees]

Finally took the oak down yesterday. This thing was so dead and dried out, it basically desinagrated upon impact. Never seen a tree die, dry up, and start dropping limbs so quickly (within 5 months). Here is a pic of the bark or after it shed some. The entire tree has these spots of missing bark from the base to the top. Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[JeffGu]

Hard to tell how much is from what killed the tree, and how much is from the tree being dead... rather like trying to autospsy a badly decomposed body. If the patient died from septicemia resulting from letting gangrene go untreated, would you be able to tell 3 months after he died? That's a gross analogy, I realize, but a tree will often develop a lot of rot from a disease or insect problem, and once it is dead that is going to accelerate... so you'll see all this damage from the insects, fungus, etc. that attack the tree while it's stressed and continue to destroy it at a faster pace as it dies. A lot of that will be incidental to whatever set the tree into decline. Not unlike a very sick person catching pnuemonia while in bed for the flu.

 

[Daniel]

bacterial leaf scortch

 

[KTSmith]

Is that off-white stuff wood or a thin mycelial mat? Does it have a smell?

 

[tothetrees]

No smell. It's smooth like skin and it seems like its under the bark. Hard to explain but its like the bark shed like a snake and this was underneath.

 

[Daniel]

that's whatever its called.. not a cause. it shows up as the tree is in real clsoe to the end

 

[limbcontrol]

Hypoxylon Canker

 

[BuckmasterTreeService]

Hypoxylon did the final damage for sure. It is everywhere around here. The black mats are spores. Don't go trimming other trees until you Lysol your tools.

 

[guymayor]

It's the tan mats that spread the most visible spores, in dust, from conidia structures like trees. Black mats are smoother rounder perithecia, a more mature sporophore but yeah sanitation can't hurt!

Not always easy to tell why it starts to grow where it grows, but it can be fast!

 

[BuckmasterTreeService]

I suggest testing the soil and fertilizing as a first step. Hypoxylon doesn't generally attack healthy trees. Then start inspecting them regularly to see what else might be weakening the trees to allow the hypoxylon to set in.