Will top killed oaks live?

[OkieKubota]

Here in Oklahoma over the past few years have gone through some pretty bad droughts and we lost a lot of our great oak trees and a lot of the ones that are left are top killed.

I wanted to know if top killed trees can pull out of it or are they destined to be dead in the next 3 or 4 years?

If they are I may need to get a logger in here to get them while the trunks are still good - Mainly Red Oak, White Oak, and Post Oak...

 

[Charleston Treeman]

There is no real answer to that question. Their survival depends on many factors that are pretty much out of our control, mostly weather and stress related. If they do end up surviving you will end up with trees that will have lost their central leader which is essentially "topping" them. This will create structural problems (ie. internal decay and poorly attached branches)in the long run with these trees. If the top loss is minimal they may survive with little ill effects. Structural defects usually aren't much of a problem in a forest setting as the targets are typically few and infrequent, but if you plan on harvesting these for timber you may want to have a forester look at them to see if they are still viable.

 

[j-bird]

Okie - I think your best long term solution is to have them harvested. IF - they live they will not produce well in most cases and they will continue to deteriorate as well. Being alive and being healthy are 2 grossly different things. Get what you can out of them now and move on. If I recall your place has lots of great oak regen as it is, so hopefully that works out to your long term advantage. Once those trunks start to rot any real value of them - other than to the woodpeckers - is grossly diminished and that includes both timber value and wildlife value. That is simply my opinion. Maybe I am wrong and others have a difference experience, but I see a dead top as the same as one that has been snapped off or really damaged. The tree can survive, but it's just a post with side limbs (that detract from the trees timber value) and the acorn production is pretty poor (poor wildlife value) and the entire time that trunk continues to rot and decay - even though it is still alive.

 

[Brushpile]

Okie, cut one and count the growth rings. It appeared that oaks grow slowly on your place do to soil and dry climate. You might be getter off with living with what you have now.

 

[OkieKubota]

There is no real answer to that question. Their survival depends on many factors that are pretty much out of our control, mostly weather and stress related. If they do end up surviving you will end up with trees that will have lost their central leader which is essentially "topping" them. This will create structural problems (ie. internal decay and poorly attached branches)in the long run with these trees. If the top loss is minimal they may survive with little ill effects. Structural defects usually aren't much of a problem in a forest setting as the targets are typically few and infrequent, but if you plan on harvesting these for timber you may want to have a forester look at them to see if they are still viable.

Thanks - I figure they are absolutely done with upward growth and a bunch of them have really nice trunks...Just hate to lose them completely including the revenue if they are destined to die soon anyway.

 

[OkieKubota]

Okie - I think your best long term solution is to have them harvested. IF - they live they will not produce well in most cases and they will continue to deteriorate as well. Being alive and being healthy are 2 grossly different things. Get what you can out of them now and move on. If I recall your place has lots of great oak regen as it is, so hopefully that works out to your long term advantage. Once those trunks start to rot any real value of them - other than to the woodpeckers - is grossly diminished and that includes both timber value and wildlife value. That is simply my opinion. Maybe I am wrong and others have a difference experience, but I see a dead top as the same as one that has been snapped off or really damaged. The tree can survive, but it's just a post with side limbs (that detract from the trees timber value) and the acorn production is pretty poor (poor wildlife value) and the entire time that trunk continues to rot and decay - even though it is still alive.

I have an amazing amount of oak regen on the place with most of it being white oak. I have looked and we have an abundance of "Good" White Oak trees and a lesser amount of Red Oak. I probably won't take any of the reds unless the consensus is that it will be certain death from the top growth. A telltale for me on what oaks are dying is because when we dozed out for our fence we also knocked all the dead trees down that I thought might fall and get the fence...now 3 years later I have several dead oaks within striking distance of the fence so we are losing trees still. I would almost rather cut off my arm than cut down a big oak tree...

 

[OkieKubota]

Okie, cut one and count the growth rings. It appeared that oaks grow slowly on your place do to soil and dry climate. You might be getter off with living with what you have now.

I will do this on a white oak that has to come out for plot expansion. I know our post oaks grow amazingly slow once they reach a certain size... I don't expect to be alive when the regen starts producing acorns but I do expect my Grandsons will be...

 

[j-bird]

I have an amazing amount of oak regen on the place with most of it being white oak. I have looked and we have an abundance of "Good" White Oak trees and a lesser amount of Red Oak. I probably won't take any of the reds unless the consensus is that it will be certain death from the top growth. A telltale for me on what oaks are dying is because when we dozed out for our fence we also knocked all the dead trees down that I thought might fall and get the fence...now 3 years later I have several dead oaks within striking distance of the fence so we are losing trees still. I would almost rather cut off my arm than cut down a big oak tree...

If they are dead or nearly dead - look at it this way. Do YOU want to decide when they come down and where or do you want mother nature to do that? If they are productive enough to be of wildlife value let them stand, but if they are not being productive in that manner then you might as well get some money out of them so they are not a total loss. IF they have to cut off your arm anyway...you might as well decide when and how and get some compensation for it!

 

[buckdeer1]

I had some sawtooths that were around 7 years old that top died last year.Forester came in and we cut one down and they took sample back to state lab.It had canker and they said it was from stress of drought.These trees wern't but about 10 inches.But when you cut down you can tell that very little of the cambium layer was alive and sending nutrients up to the top.These trees sprouted from the base and some are 6ft tall again

 

[Brushpile]

This drought needs to end. Rain tomorrow is too long in coming. Hopefully the drought will end this year. The Dust Bowl lasted 7 years.

 

[deer patch]

All of mine died within a few years. I know we live in different state but we seem to have the same temps as you so I'm afraid your trees are going to have the same results as ours. Seems we get a little more rain than you also. If it was me and had enough trees to log I would getting in touch with a logger.

 

[buckdeer1]

We had rain this year over 40 inches above normal but no rain for a month hardly and already dry.Sure was nice not having to water trees this summer