Three years ago I began fire mimicry treatment on a grove of coast live oaks here in Big Sur. This is an area with serious oak decline problems, with many oaks having stem cankers (probably Sudden Oak Death). My crew and I did significant clearing and pruning of the oaks and fertilized the soils with compost tea and alkaline-rich minerals, and I performed stem canker surgeries on several of the oaks. The owner was adamant that we NOT apply a limewash to the trunks, due to the aesthetics of the white-trunk trees. The oaks were treated again in 2015 with compost tea and soil minerals.
Today I visited the oaks and re-photographed them. Here are the results. While most of the oaks showed a positive response, some did not. My sense is that limewashing the trunks would have given better results. Still, it is useful to see that clearing, pruning, compost tea, and soil minerals, without limewash, can benefit the oaks.
Sudden Oak Life 
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