Howdy folks,
In regards to this message:
I asked this same question last winter, and was told to wait until July or
August because that is when the things that cause wilt are not active.

I just trimmed mine a week ago. I don't know what is right because of
totally conflicting information on here.

Bob
As Victoria, pointed out checking with Texas A&M is always a good
idea.
Here is a page regarding pruning and Oak Wilt at:

http://dallas.tamu.edu/oakwilt/

It states in greater detail what has been said already, but it is well
worth reading. The activity of the bug that is one of the vectors for
infestation is year round, but is at it's greatest level of activity
in spring and early summer, which sounds like most bugs I'm on a first
name basis with.
I always tell people, no matter what you hear from anyone, no matter
how authoritative they sound, always double check info, I have found
the usenet groups very helpful not just in terms of the questions and
ideas raised but by pointing me to other sources of info like the TAMU
sites etc.

Take care,
Steve Coyle
www.austingardencenter.com

Howdy folks,
This morning I did a little more digging about Oak Wilt.
If you do a google search, first clicking on this 'group only search'
and then organize by date, you can pull up last November's short
thread about Oak Wilt and then a long thread from summer 2002 that
debated a lot of these same issues. Something in last summer's thread,
that is valuable, aside from laying out the conflicting ideas are the
large number of URL's related to Oak Wilt for further research.
If my reading of the issues in that thread is accurate: The hottest
part of the summer is a time of 'summer dormancy' for trees and should
be considered a second option aside from winter from pruning ( this is
disputed )
An argument was also made that the beetle, which is one of the
vectors for Oak wilt transmission, is less active in the hottest part
of the summer. (Also disputed,but I didn't see much info on the actual
life cycle, is there an entymologist in the house? )
An interesting point was that serillizing between cuts on an Oak
might not be needed, that if the disease is in the vascular system it
makes no difference from cut to cut, but making sure a tree trimmer
working multiple jobs has sterilized tools is important .
To paint or not to paint wounds was argued. It's a balance between
modern theory of letting a properly pruned cut heal using the tree's
own defense system and protecting against disease spread.
Some interesting points were made about the pattern of Oak Wilt
distributions and the area and what that might imply in terms of it's
spread and history.
And it was pointed out that protecting against the beetle was not
going to guarentee prevention of infection since the major
transmission vector was root to root transmission, and there are some
anecdotal reports of trees that show no sign of either beetle
infestation or proximity necessary for root to root transmission, a
mystery.
That's a summary to the best of my ability, it's worth reading the
entire Oak Wilt threads from last year and clicking on the URL's for
further info on the disease.

Steve Coyle
www.austingardencenter.com

On Wed, 16 Jul 2003 04:24:06 -0500, "bobwhite"
wrote:


"Steve Coyle" wrote in message
. com...
Howdy folks,
In regards to this exchange:
In your opinion, what is the best time of year to trim oak trees?



in the winter

I asked this same question last winter, and was told to wait until July or
August because that is when the things that cause wilt are not active.

I just trimmed mine a week ago. I don't know what is right because of
totally conflicting information on here.

Bob


Both Winter and Summer are recommended times for pruning oaks. In
addition to being less active times for the insects and the trees, the
fungus that causes the disease will not produce spores unless
conditions are right, and hot dry summers are no better for this than
frozen winters.

keith
For more info about the International Society of Arboriculture, please visit http://www2.champaign.isa-arbor.com/.
For consumer info about tree care, visit http://www2.champaign.isa-arbor.com/.../consumer.html