Thank you everyone for your thoughts! Dan: What is a flicker? And can I take it that you meant I should cut the lower branch off, which is the most damaged? If it is a pathogen of some sort, is there anything you think I could do to help the tree? Make sure it has a fighting chance. We usually spread compost on our yard spring and fall. My neighbor has a red oak 10' on the other side of the fence, and his tree never greens up each summer; the leaves stay the light spring green color. I always thought our spreading compost helped our trees to be strong, with strong, dark green leaves. But maybe this was not a good idea? If I introduced a pathogen this way? JQPublic, here are requested photos: Here is the tree in its entirety. As you can see, from the left we have an arbor vitex (chaste tree/Texas Lavender), small red oak, and then the tallest tree, with the airplane path touching it on the left, is the Red Oak with the bark loss. In front is a Texas Red bud. I realize my earlier pictures had some spent vitex blooms in the pic. We have several trees in there together, and its hard to get a clean pic. Here is the tree down to the bole, from the same direction, looking toward the house. I don't know how to draw a circle on a picture, so let me say that in this pic, you can see the worst damage, on the first branch from the ground, on the right. That is the branch almost completely girdled. This branch is about 15' feet from the ground. Because we have a sloped yard, here is pic of the tree down to the bole, from the house, looking toward the green belt we back up to. Kids are messy, so please excuse me that I didn't pick up before taking pic. I was trying to hurry during nap time. As I mentioned, I don't know how to draw a circle on a pic, and couldn't figure it out just now, so here is a pic that shows both places of damage so you can get an idea of how far apart they are, and how the main trunk is reacting. The second place of damage is much smaller and way higher than the first. Again this picture is looking from the house, toward the green belt. The lowest/first set of branches off the main trunk has the worst damage, and the third set of branches up the trunk is the second lesser damaged area. This second damaged area seems to be healing well, but I would like to know what caused the problem, so we can stop it. In full disclosure I'll mention that we noticed the initial problem on the lowest branches summer 2008. Summer 2009 we noticed the problem higher up on the third set of branches. We probably DO need to call out an arborist, but are being cheap and hoping it would be an easily diagnosed problem by the GW experts! Thank you everyone for your help and advice! I really appreciate it. Heather

The Texas Red Oak trees started in small little cups. As they have grown, I have transplanted them to larger pots. They are now in 10-12 gallon pots. A local nursery ended up donating the pots to me and they filled the bed of my truck with an organic (medium) potting mixture. Yesterday, I was in the backyard and noticed that some of the pots were in the hot sun from 12pm to 4pm and those were the trees that were doing the worst. I moved these into another location so they will not get so hot. Hopefully this will help them out. Again, I appreciate all of your time and help. Any additional help and info would be greatly appreciated. Would liquid fertilizer help these grow any faster? Thanks!

Again, insect vectors. Its not the open wound, it's the attraction of insect vectors. By the time insects emerge in spring, there is no longer any sap from the would to attract possible insects. THAT is the goal that disrupts transmission. That is what prevents infection. Therefore, that is when you want to do the pruning (outside of perhaps storm damage). Arktrees

They are probably referring to the same thing. If you are in the Midwest most people will say Red Oak but if you look at a Quercus rubra tag in the nursery the common name will be listed as Northern Red Oak. In my experience Red Oak (or NRO) is quite variable in fall color but usually gives a decent display. I prefer many of the white oak hybrids like Prairie Stature, Forest Knight, etc... as they are more resistant to oak wilt and still give a nice color display in the fall. Growth rate of the red oak group as a whole is typically quicker than that of the white oak group. If your soil is acidic enough also think about trying Quercus ellipsoidalis or Quercus coccinea, both of which tend to have excellent fall color.