Brown leaves on hedge

Lando Griffin

My laurel hedge has developed brown yellow leaves. It was planted 2 years ago and about 2 foot high.
I have given it chicken manure and a month later Miracle grow.
Iv noticed alot of other hedging and shrubs are also going yellow and brown.
It may be the weather but is there anything else I can do as I dint want to loose it.

paddy147

Lando Griffin wrote: »

My laurel hedge has developed brown yellow leaves. It was planted 2 years ago and about 2 foot high.
I have given it chicken manure and a month later Miracle grow.
Iv noticed alot of other hedging and shrubs are also going yellow and brown.
It may be the weather but is there anything else I can do as I dint want to loose it.

The soil may be too heavy/compacted and holding too much moisture and therefore the Laurel roots are struggling below ground.

You could try to break up the soil and condition it a little,but you will have to be carefull not to uproot the actual hedges.

Feeding it like that may have damaged it though...if base/roots were in direct contact with the chicken manure and leaves watered/sprayed with miracle grow (if its a non foliar feed).

Sonnenblumen

Lando Griffin wrote: »

My laurel hedge has developed brown yellow leaves. It was planted 2 years ago and about 2 foot high.
I have given it chicken manure and a month later Miracle grow.
Iv noticed alot of other hedging and shrubs are also going yellow and brown.
It may be the weather but is there anything else I can do as I dint want to loose it.

Dead men walking!

redser7

Why so SB? I guess the feed was too rich but cant it recover? How about a harsh pruning and remove any manure left on the soil surface.

redser7

The only thing I use to feed my hedge Lando is a few layers of grass clippings as a mulch during spring and summer. It does just fine.

km79

Is it not just wind burn ?

Sonnenblumen

redser7 wrote: »

Why so SB? I guess the feed was too rich but cant it recover? How about a harsh pruning and remove any manure left on the soil surface.

Laurel should put on good growth within two years. But what you do will depend much on your willingness to play the guessing game of doubt?

The reasons are probably to do with inadequate growing conditions/ground preparation. The two options would be to mess around trying to fix this, that or the other and wait in hope that the plants might recover? The alternative is to remove all and start from scratch. I would go with the latter option.

If young plants are struggling, they'll always struggle and in that case why plant a laurel (or anything else) if it is vulnerable, or never likely to reach full potential and thrive?

peadar76

km79 wrote: »

Is it not just wind burn ?

would this not be the case? The easterly wind we had for a lot of march and april was very hard on plants

Lando Griffin

peadar76 wrote: »

would this not be the case? The easterly wind we had for a lot of march and april was very hard on plants

I am hoping this is the case as alot if other mature plants including laurel have brown leaves.
I did the exact same method coming into Autumn last year and it gave them a little boost with glossy green leaves for winter.

Lando Griffin

Ok so I was out tending the hedge again and although alot of the leaves are browning there are alot if not more little shoots appearing.
Having a look around the estate and alot of more matured hedging is the same espically on the east facing side.