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It's a live oak - quercus virginiana - and all the limbs/twigs without leaves on them are dead.

What is ailing it is unknown to me. Doesn't look like oak wilt. Looks like it was happy at one time from the acorns and leaves left. Was it planted within the last year? Did you water it during drought?

No matter the cause, probably best to start over with something else. You can prune all the dead off and see what it looks like if you want. If the roots are otherwise healthy, it will look like a tree again in a decade or so with good aftercare - ie mulch and regular proper watering

The tree is about 3 years old. We had once a week watering restrictions, but watered it during the drought via the automatic sprinkler system. At present the tree is about 12-15 feet tall.

The tree still has acorns at the bottom healthy part while it seems to be dying top down.

Someone at my local lowes suggested that it could be blythe (I didn't have pictures to show her at the time). Do you think that is a possibility?

Thanks,

netnerd

Lawn sprinklers do not provide adequate deep moisture for trees unless they are left on for a very long time (think over an hour). That may very well not have been enough water for them in the hot dry weather and the summers of 2011 and 2012 were just absolutely brutal for new transplants in your area. I'd probably be glad the thing is still alive if it were mine!

The tree does not seem to be suffering from any sort of blight that I can see. Just looks stressed from lack of watering IMO. How long has the top been leafless? It looks as though the top died some time in the past (like last year maybe) and this year it had an abundance of roots and/or better weather because the growth that is left looks very healthy.

My apologies I don't know much about how to take care of trees/plants. There is a small spout kinda thing next to the tree that turns on along with the sprinklers and pours water directly into the mulch surrounding the tree for about 40 minutes once a week. Do I need to adjust this for more time?

I noticed the branches dying from top down in the last 3 months or so. It was pretty healthy last year. Do I need to cut off the dead branches at the top? How do I take care of it and try and save it?

Southern Live Oak

First get on a ladder and get to a branch with no leaves on it, scrap a branch with a knife and if you still see green, the branch is alive.

It's not Oak wilt or Sudden Oak Death.

Did the tree ever lose leaves this year? If not its rare but possible its doing it's annual leaf drop, but just out of sinc with usual spring leaf drop.

Might just be tree stress

If you still have leaves on the ground take a look at them and go to website below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Live Oak Diseases

I'm going to suggest problems with planting procedures. And the guy wires look like they're as tight as they can possibly be. One of my clients won a substantial lawsuit over a large commercial installation project where the trees were killed by strangulation and/or improper planting.

Such trees die from the top down.....the outside in.

Lowes is not a good place to get advice on your trees and other plants.

Texas amazes me. First I thought everything off the eastern end of the state was a desert. Then do I recall hearing Houston gets 40 inches of rain annually like we do here? But my father in law and others complain of water shortages?

Perhaps if you go the replacement route get a smaller transplant that will have a shorter re establishment time in the event the watering restrictions are not a one time thing.

Also, what grows naturally in your area? For example, I just fan not grow live oak here because of my winters. But sycamores and cottonwoods spring up at will. What grows along the highways down there?

Forty inches of rain in Houston's hot climate isn't all that much, really. We get 40 inches here on average in the DC/Baltimore area, and still get a bit dry in a normal summer by August.

Houston is some 10 degrees hotter, so that much more evaporation is going on with the same rainfall, more or less which = less water available to plants and humans. FWIW per Wikipedia Houston is closer to 49" annually, however, but the same principle applies as July and August have about the same precip in both locations (Houston gets more rain in spring than we do though).

We also got right about 40" on average in Akron, Ohio, and that area is moister overall than here, for the same reason (about 5-6 degrees cooler on average in summer, 8-10 degrees colder on average in winter than here)

Some years, Houston get insane amount of rainfall because of tropical storms. Central Texas are very prone to feast or famine compared to eastern Texas (east of I-45) which tends to be more of Pine Forest type.

Escarpment live oak trees are everywhere in central Texas. They don't get as large as you'd see in Houston or Louisiana where they get a lot more rain.

If you scratch off the bark on one of the leafless branches and it is not green then I would remove the tree and plant another one or something else altogether.

The spout looking thing next to the trunk is actually an emitter and it would be helpful for you to know how many gallons per hour it releases when it is on. My guess is that the emitter doesn't put out enough water for your tree, especially in the climate that you have. Additionally, with emitters, you have to make sure the area for water output is clear of hardened minerals from the water. If you have even slightly hard water, you will need to replace them every few years. The heads are inexpensive so it's no worries but it could be partially clogged leading to even less water getting to the tree.

I know this has already been said but...please also be advised that the people at Lowe's aren't the best to ask complicated plant questions. Forget about asking anyone at Home Depot for sure....

Finally, whoever said about the guy wires being too tight is absolutely correct. You never want to have them that tight. The tree is likely getting strangled.

Eh I have seen trees get along pretty well with guy wires practically permanently attached as in the tree had callused and began to enclose them while maintaining a healthy top (cedar and pine). It is certainly not doing the tree any favors, though. After 3 years, those stakes/wires should be off tonight!!! However, I don't think it can definitely be penciled in as the de facto reason for the decline. I still think lack of adequate deep regular watering is the main culprit here.

And scratching the bark to see if it is still green before pruning is the way to go but I'd wager on this species in particular if it ain't got leaves on it, it's D-E-A-D. I hope I'm wrong! If it turns out the bark is green and there are viable buds present, it just might leaf out normally next spring and this half bare image will be a distant memory =)

John

From planting trees at Killeen, I'd say your live oak didn't get enough water. Once a week is enough. Provide ~ 10 gallons per inch of trunk diameter (so if your trunk diameter is 3" provide 30 gallons minimum each time. Oh and as mentioned above, remove the stakes now.
Increase the amount of water, your tree may show signs of recovering in the weeks/months ahead.

Looking at your first pic, I can visibly see the half below the wire area thicker trunk and smoother bark, above thinner trunk and bark appears rough.

Take off those wire right away