Do your live oaks look this good in January?

Do your Texas live oaks look this good in January? It would be a good idea to save this photo and compare it to your trees next January. I consider January/February to be a great time for judging the health and vigor of the Texas live oak, because the foliage has been on the tree for 10-11 months. If you know what you are looking for, you can see a full history of nearly every stress factor that the tree underwent during the course of the past growing season. Premature defoliation, caused by numerous stress agents, has often caused the live oaks to look sparse and sickly, but not the trees in this photo.
All we did to these trees was to treat with naturally derived spinosad to help suppress the spring caterpillar. We did it approximately 10 months prior to this photo. Not a full-on Plant Health Care program, mind you, with organic soil reconditioning and treatments for mites, leaf disease, sucking insects, root rot, etc. Just caterpillars. And here the trees are, 10 months later, looking like it's springtime already. But no, that's senescent foliage! That's right, and all the neighbors listened to their friendly gardening columnist or radio personality, chose not to treat for caterpillars, and their live oaks look like their dormant cousins.

We all make the assumption that our live oaks are supposed to look like crud in the winter, with vast percentages of their leaf populations long fallen from the canopy. But they should actually look green and lush all the way through until leaf drop. Hence the name live oak! See, the urban/suburban environment predisposes the native tree to many agents of premature defoliation, some of which are so easy to correct that I'm appalled at the advice some folks in this town are giving. Poor soil nutrition, caterpillars, mites, sucking insects, leaf diseases, root rot, etc. all claim their share of the trees' leaf population as the growing season progresses, until by the end of the year there's hardly anything left. Why do we even bother having trees if we neglect them to the point that they have hardly any foliage left?
One San Antonio columnist says cankerworms are nature's way of pruning the trees. What!? The very notion is utterly ridiculous. The fact is that all (endemic) pests and diseases can be argued to be nature's way of weeding out the weak, but do we want population control measures running rampant on our residential properties?
I would like invite him to come ride with me to see the 8-12 properties a day that I look at, and show him what I see. These pedantic horticulture columnists and radio gardeners will spare no expense keeping their petunias in tip-top shape, and then tell their readers and listeners that their trees "take care of themselves". What, don't the majestic oaks deserve to be healthy, vigorous and beautiful, too?
Please feel free to leave a comment or send an email. If you're looking for a TCIA Accredited Houston Tree Service or Certified Arborist, call the company I've worked for since 2002, Bartlett Tree Experts, at 713-692-6371. This is my personal blog--it is not affiliated with Bartlett Tree Experts.