
On red oak group members (pin, red, black, scarlet — pointed, bristle-tipped lobes), leaves bronze or brown from the tip and outer margin inward while the base stays green, then drop heavily in midsummer while still partly green. A crown can go from normal to bare in a few weeks, usually starting at the top. On white oak group members (white, bur, swamp white — rounded lobes), the same infection shows as scattered branch flagging spread across several seasons. Sometimes dark streaking in the sapwood beneath the bark of a wilted branch. A fungus is growing inside the water-conducting vessels while the tree plugs its own vessels trying to wall it off — which is why the foliage behaves like a drought that no amount of watering fixes. The species group is the entire prognosis: red oaks almost always die and die fast, white oaks frequently compartmentalize and survive. Equally important, an infected oak endangers its neighbors, because the disease travels underground between oaks whose roots have grown together. This is a neighborhood problem, not a single-tree problem.
Within days. Normally a tree removal job, $400–$1,900 around Indianapolis depending on size and access.
A symptomatic red oak, essentially never — once the crown wilts, treatment fails. A symptomatic white oak sometimes holds on with removal of affected limbs and basic care. The realistic goal is protecting what is still healthy: sever root grafts by trenching between the infected tree and nearby oaks before or during removal, and inject high-value uninfected oaks nearby with propiconazole preventively. Handle the wood correctly, since a dead red oak left standing or stacked bark-on can produce spore mats that launch the airborne cycle. Do not move oak firewood off the property.