Oak tree's dying?

The leaves on my oak trees are prematurely browning. On some of the younger trees there is almost no green to be seen and even on the huge older trees the brown is starting to outnumber the green? There have been no changes to their environment to stress the trees in anyway.
At first I thought it might be Anthracnose but most of the leaves aren't just looking a little scorched they look dead.
Any idea what this might be? Am I going to lose all my trees?

 

Hi cbvincent

Have you had a look at this thread yet? http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/showthread.php/tree-health-disgnosis-16441.html. Premature leaf necrosis can mean any number of things ranging from fungal infection to waterlogging. If you can provide a photo or two and any other details about the symptoms the tree is showing it may help in finding out what the problem is.

 

Hi Tree surfer

Thanks I have looked at this thread. The trees are well established, most 40-60ft high but there are also some younger saplings (self seeded, not planted, about 3 years old and some of which are now totally brown) there has been no change to their environment for many years and apart from the leaves there are no other signs of ill health. Last year, as previously, the oak trees looked very healthy and as normal produced a huge amount of acorns. One of my friends who lives a couple of miles away says his oak trees are also showing the same signs.
I've attached a photo of one of the trees where there are still some grren leaves!

 

Hi,

From what you're describing and the attached photo I think your trees are suffering from leaf miner damage, caused by various numerous insects. If you remove some of the leaves and hold them up to the light you may be able to see the insect inside. Control may not be neccessary due to the fact that once the insect hatches it will leave the tree. Next year the tree should come back healthy as before, as long as it doesn't get reinfected! If you do want to try and get rid of the pest there are specialist insecticides available but you will have to find out what the insect is and what it's lifecycle is first.

 

Thank you so much for your reply. I did some more investigation of the trees and research with this new knowledge of leaf miners which led me to other info. After examining LOTS of leaves it would appear we have not just 1 but 2 pests eating away at the oak trees. From the larvae I suspect one of the leaf miner moths (it's hard to be sure, but from other slimy larvae and skeletal leafs I suspect we also have sawfly problems. Apart from trying to be as ecofriendly as possible on our land, it is just not practical to use any insecticide for the sawfly and all the articles indicate there are no insecticides for the leaf miner moths. So, come leaf fall, which can last well into spring with oaks, all we can try is collecting as many leaves as possible and burning them rather than composting. And then just hope for the best. The good news is that on close inspection, even some of the saplings which had total devastation of leaves, there are now signs of new growth! :yho: