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How early in the fall can you flood oak trees without hurting them. We have some oaks that are about 7 years old and are contemplating putting in our boards a little early this year. We want water, but we also want our oaks. Thanks.

I would only try to put at most 3 months of water on them out of the year...we typically flood oaks first of november and pull the plug right after season. Are these natural flooding oaks or are they pumped up? Sounds like yall got some flashboard risers or some kind of water control structures but are the oaks levied off or dependent on natural water?

Bottomland oaks are generally tolerant of flooding during dormancy, but repeated flooding during the growing season can eventually hurt them. Many trees are starting to drop leaves now, but to be on the safe side, I would wait as long as I could to flood the oaks so that they could get closer to complete dormancy. (It may be safe to flood them now, but in my experience it's been better to flood a little too late than a little too early.) Just my opinion...

Another big part to the equation is how often you will flood the trees (rotation of years or annually).

Wait til the leaves fall to be safe, let the water off before they come out of dormancy next spring.