Sudden Oak Life by Lee Klinger

This is a 2017 image of an old-growth coast live oak in Monterey that I’ve been treating with fire mimicry for eight years. At that time it had bleeding stem canker infection, possibly Sudden Oak Death disease or Armillaria (oak root rot), at the base of the trunk. After the initial soil fertilization treatments I performed a surgery on December 2, 2018 to remove, cauterize, and poultice the canker infection.

Here are the results:

After seven years the surgical wound has shown continuous healing with no residual signs of infection! The oak’s canopy density has also increased during this time (see photo set below).

I’m calling this a win against oak disease!