When do live oaks drop their leaves

However, live oaks are NOT true evergreens. They do drop their old leaves as new leaves emerge in the spring. These trees may appear sickly when temperatures begin to rise a little, typically in late January and in February. Symptoms that are observed typically include yellowing. In many cases, the leaves may have spots or blotches that are brown or black. Quite often, they discolor in a relatively short time. These leaves are. The spots may be due to secondary infections by pathogens.

Sometimes, these leaves may even have veins that turn brown while interveinal areas remain green. If that is your attitude, now is the best time to treat the ball moss. With the leaves partially off of the trees, a contractor can apply a copper hydroxide spray which will slowly kill the ball moss.

Through the spring the ball moss will fall off the treated trees. As soon as the weather forecast predicts two days where temperatures stay above 45 degrees, take the opportunity to spray dormant oil on fruit trees and roses to control scale and overwintering mites and other pests.

Do not spray fruit trees that are in bloom. Apply pre-emergent herbicides to your lawn to prevent crabgrass and sand burs. Follow label instructions. It is too early to fertilize the lawn but it is a great time to aerate and topdress the lawn.

It can be done by a contractor, or you can rent an aerator and have a load of compost delivered to spread. One cubic yard will cover square feet of lawn.

Put the purple martin houses up on or about March 1 unless you have seen returning birds before then. Ball moss is an epiphyte air plant that makes its living from the air, not from the host plant. The ball moss seeds land on horizontal portions of slow-growing or dead branches within the tree and obtain nitrogen, carbon dioxide and moisture from the air.

It will even grow on utility lines. Ball moss is a cosmetic issue, but oak wilt is a real threat to the wellbeing of your live oak trees. These differences may be genetic since most live oaks are grown from seedlings, or due to stresses such as girdling roots and soil differences in the site. If trees are losing leaves throughout the year and the canopy is growing thinner and does not put on new foliage following spring leaf drop then your trees are likely suffering from other stress factors.

In such cases it is best to seek the assistance of a professional arborist. For more information check out the Texas Plant Clinic web site on spring live oak leaf drop.

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