SAN ANSELMO — Sudden oak death has been a major problem in California for years, and it continues to concern property owners statewide. In some cases, however, what people perceive to be symptoms of this disease actually denote a much less alarming condition.
One of the most obvious signs of sudden oak death is a black staining of the lower part of the tree trunk—a thick, sticky substance with a sweet odor, similar to wine. What few people realize is there’s another tree condition that exhibits similar symptoms: bacterial wetwood (also known as slime flux). Bacterial wetwood is basically a fermented, slimy bacterial liquid that oozes from a crack or wound on a tree’s exterior and leaves vertical streaks as it runs down the side of the trunk. Luckily, this occurrence doesn’t have much of an effect on the tree; it doesn’t need to be treated, and it’ll eventually go away on its own.
People sometimes mistake slime flux for sudden oak death, but if you look closely, there are several differences between the symptoms. First, sudden oak death usually occurs on the lower trunk, whereas slime flux can occur much higher up. Also, unlike the thick, sweet-smelling character of sudden oak death, slime flux is a thinner liquid and has a rancid odor. So, before jumping to the conclusion that your tree has sudden oak death, take a closer look at the symptoms.

Does My Tree Have Sudden Oak Death?

Get expert advice and practical tips on how to identify Sudden Oak Death symptoms in your trees and prevent it from spreading.

Does My Tree Have Sudden Oak Death? by James Cairnes

by James Cairnes, a Diamond Certified Expert Contributor

Video: Does My Tree Have Sudden Oak Death?

if you've identified signs of sudden oak
death on your oak tree it's possible
you've confused these symptoms with
those of a much less alarming condition
today we're in San Anselmo with diamond
certified expert contributor James
karen's of World Tree Service to learn
more something that I'm frequently asked
is it does my beautiful oak tree have
some oak death so I'd like to just put
put your mind at rest hopefully that's
that there is another similar disease
which is very common and is not a
problem for the oak trees so the Sudden
Oak Death at first as we probably all
know is seen by this black staining on
the lower trunk of the tree and it's
very sticky and very thick and it smells
it smells like wine it's kind of smells
like it's kind of a nice smell and this
is a not this is bad isn't a sudden
Oakley episode this is what we don't do
not want but the other thing that we're
trying to tell the difference from is a
thinner liquid that comes from higher up
in the tree usually that's called a
slime flux or bacterial wet wood and
it's a liquid that's very thin liquid
and it's very rancid smelling so thin
and rants it as opposed to thick and
smelling like wine so so the rancid
smelling is it you know is actually the
thin the thing which is not so bad so
that actually doesn't affect the tree
it's a bacterial wet wood it's caused by
fermentation bacteria from from us from
a wound that can be seeping SAP and it's
so it's not actually that bad it's not a
bad thing you do not need to treat this
and it will eventually go away
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