Oaks and Bumps

​When you see orange and funky colored bumps on your oak leaves, chances are – your trees have blisters. Here’s what it means and here’s what you can do:
 
Blister disease and oak leaf gall are the two issues most commonly found on your oak leaves and here’s how you tell which is which: Blisters will come off as raised spots scattered about your canopy. If the leaves look sunken or indented, then this is what you’re dealing with. They can cause curling and kill leaves earlier than they’re intended to pass. 
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 Galls come when insects and mites have set up shop in your tree. They present themselves as orange and black balls that come in a variety of sizes and often spread quickly throughout your leaves and in some cases – will even turn up on branches. Depending on what insect might be the culprit, you’ll see some bumps that are perfectly round and smooth while others may have tiny hairs on them.
 
What you can do
 The good news here is that gall and blistering doesn’t do much damage to your tree in the long run. Neither are particularly pleasant to look at, but you can rest assured that your tree should bounce back just fine.
 
Most importantly – there’s almost no need for any kind of chemical treatment.
 
If your trees have blisters, then make sure you’re watering on a more consistent basis and that you cover the base of the tree with a hearty helping of mulch next spring. In the winter months, add some fertilizer to keep the tree as healthy as possible.
 
If your tree has Oak Gall, you can simply prune the infected leaves. In the fall, make sure you do super-thorough job of raking your leaves so as to not afford those pests, mites and bugs the opportunity to gestate over the winter. Follow those simple instructions and you’ll be back in business in no time.
 
And as always, if your tree isn’t responding, call a pro to come take a look as the problem may be more serious than cosmetic.