Oak Tree Leaves all dried up (Houston, Live Oak: new house, construction, live)

[arunreddyn]

The oak tree ( medium planted by builder 6 months back) in our front lawn is dying all of a sudden. All the leaves are dired up. I think this has happened in no time. We are very surprised to see it with dead leaves. I dont even know when this started. I want to know if I can do anything to keep tree from dying. How to check if the tree died completely? should I put more water or how to find out if its overwatered?

[Aliana926]

Do you know what kind of oak it is? Around me, the builders planted shumard oak and most of them are having the same issue. Is this happening to your neighbors too?

[tstone]

Cut off a twig and if it is green inside then it will come back next year.

If it's a standard Live Oak (Southern or Texas varieties) or a Water Oak then you can't really overwater those. Sounds like it might be drying out. My 6ft, baby Southern Live Oak is looking a little rough but it should come back next year.

[RVD26]

The new house we just bought earlier this month has a couple of oak trees planted in the front.
They told us to water, water, water those babies b/c they need a lot of water.
Each one of our trees has a tube that goes directly to the roots so we can just drop a hose in there to water them.
Even with that we have seen a few brown leaves.
Sounds like you just need to water a little bit more, but even with that they will still be a little brown b/c of the dry conditions.

[Dougishere2]

You might want to deep water it. Go to Hardware store get a device that hooks up to your water hose and you just turn the water on and push it into the ground at the roots. let the water run till it comes up.

[Supermac34]

Water! I can't believe how many people are letting their younger trees dry out and die with the lack of rain this year. Set the hose on it and let the water barely dribble out for about 2-3 hours until is saturates the ground around the base. Do this every other day until you start seeing it get green again.

Newly planted trees need to be watered in quite a bit, but we usually can get away with being lazy in Houston due to our rain fall. However, in dry summers like this, you need to give them extra help. Also, your yard sprinkler probably isn't soaking it enough if you are trying to rely on that.

Also, I agree, cut a twig and make sure its still green inside. It might have already died.

[lane_change]

One of our oaks did the same thing. We have 5 new trees on our property from the construction, and one of them is completely brown. We snapped off a limb and it is green inside, and hopefully it will come back next spring. I have a sprinkler system that waters the property twice a day, morning and evening. I also spiked all the trees to help them grow, and I have a water hose running directly to the "dead" tree and so far it is still dead. The soil around the tree will be puddled up after each sprinkler session (15 minutes per zone twice a day). Not sure what will happen, hopefully it will come back around.

[SpeedLane]

Newly planted Oak trees need a well around them, for the 1st 2 years.
To allow the water to stay there and sink deep.
Else the water runs along the surface, and it is wasted, and expensive.
Also, very little slow release fertilizer once a week is better than a bunch of fertilzer
that can burn the roots. Spikes are too strong, and release
too much on the same spot.

[arunreddyn]

hello all..

thank you for your inputs..

mine is live oak tree. I scratched the trunc and I see green.. the twigs are not green but they are not dried also. Some of the small ones are dries ( looks like ). I am not sure if have to water it or no so as one said Live oak may not be overwatered. I will try to water it for 2 weeks and see.

[SpeedLane]

Also, a common mistake is to think that since it rained today,
I do not need to water. This is true only if it is more than 1/2 inch rain.
A little rain will not get to the root of a tree.
And for the first 6 months, if not a year, a young oak tree needs
a good amount of water every single day, unless the ground is soaked
from a big storm the day before....
A well around it is an absolutely must, to keep the water from getting "lost"
where it is not needed.