Californians are especially proud of their oak trees. Still, no amount of pride can act to prevent the development of tree-related problems, such as the browning of leaves.

A listing of the problems that could affect an oak’s leaves

Anthracnose: This condition makes the leaves turn brown, and then curl up.

Bur oak blight: Attacks only bur oak trees. It causes the leaf loss to begin in late summer.

Stress caused by drought: The leaves are smaller than expected. Other foliage wilts. An affected leaf appears more yellow, as opposed to brown.

Borer insects: The boring insects’ presence accounts for the leaves’ coloring

Root rot: An arborist in San Jose can differentiate root rot from the other problems by noticing the pattern in the browning of the leaves. With this rot, the browning starts at the top of the tree.

Oak wilt: This is a fungus. It causes each affected leaf to brown on the edges first. Eventually, the browned and wilted leaves start dropping. Although all oaks lose their leaves in the autumn, those affected by Oak wilt undergo a premature dropping of their leafy growth.

A gardener that suspects Oak wilt could confirm those suspicions by looking to see what is under the tree’s bark. Are there gray or black mats under that bark? If so, then the gardener’s suspicions would be proven correct.

How to address each problem?

Stress caused by drought might seem easy to fix. Yet homeowners might be encouraged to limit their water use during a drought. If that happens to be the case, then a gardener needs to turn to an alternate remedy. That is anti-desiccant spray.

A specialist in tree pests would need to be consulted, if an oak had demonstrated the effects of an infestation from borer insects. Gardeners that hope to discover a remedy for any of the other problems should contact a professional arborist in Palo Alto. Professional arborists can function in the role of a tree doctor. Each of them has learned what sort of treatment might be used to fix the problem that has caused a given oak to exhibit unnatural behavior.

Moreover, arborists have studied all types of plants. Each of them should be able to note the symptoms of any disease or other problem that could be affecting other growth in a home’s yard. An arborist would know whether or not such a problem could eventually affect one or more oak trees. Furthermore, any problem can be solved more easily when it gets spotted early. That simple fact holds true for any type of rot, blight, insect infestation, or fungus infection. As a rule, the arborist’s eye can detect the presence of the earliest symptoms.