Live Oak - Galls - Tree Seems to be dying

rgnank1 · Joined: 09 Jul 2003 Posts: 2 Location: North Richland Hills

I live in N. Richland Hills, Tx. and I have two very nice Live Oak Trees. They both are at least 15 years old, perhaps older. The one in the back seems to be infested with galls (brown ball type growths on the branches in various places). A commerical tree company said there's nothing that can be done. They said that they believe it originally was probably casued by a wasp. The tree seems to be under a great deal of stress. I had a dog in the back yard confined to an area that included under the tree. It was a large older yellow lab female that maybe pounded down the soil around the roots. This yr. the dog died and we put some sod back over where the dog wore the grass. We did place some of the St. Aug. sod over some of the roots that were showing. Limbs seem to be drooping. There's a lot of green on the tree still, but there are many lower bare small branches.

Do you have any suggestions? More water? Aerorate the soil around the roots? Any kind of supplements?

Thanks Bob rgnank1@sbcglobal.net :?

Tony M · Joined: 31 Mar 2003 Posts: 1086 Location: McKinney,TEXAS

rgnank1-
All of this sounds relatively normal for a live oak. The galls are caused by wasps and are harmless other that the astectics. The smaller branches may be dying because they are always shaded. Look at the conditions under the tree, is the root flare exposed, did you put more than several inches of new material over the root zone? It can never hurt to do the sick tree treatment if you wnat to do something helpful for the tree.
Tony M