jesse_burns8•12d agoProlific Poster

Spent 3 years pruning live oaks wrong in Austin until a drought showed me

I always cut flush to the trunk, thinking I was being clean, but after that dry summer in 2022 the branches started rotting right at the cuts. Had one of the old-timers from the city crew point out I was taking off the branch collar - has anyone else had a basic habit get called out way later?

2 comments

2 Comments

olivia_anderson12d ago

Hard to believe a little cutting mistake would cause that much damage. Maybe the drought was just hard on the trees anyway and you're overthinking it.

the_jana10d agoMost Upvoted

Hold up, think about the timing of the pruning and the local fungus patterns. Pruning in a wet spring creates open wounds when airborne spores are most active, way different than a dry dormant season cut. If that cut hit right during a spore release event, it could have let a whole infection get started deep inside the trunk before the drought even stressed it. I've seen it happen with our old apricot tree out back, one bad timing cut turned into a major canker.