New hedge advice

893bet

Can anyone advise me on the proper protocol for new hedge.

Questions planning on bareroot, a mix of beech and maybe a few others dotted.

1) what winter month would be best?

2) I plan on spraying off the area (maybe an 18 inch strip or so) around two weeks before planting. This sound ok?

3) I am going to spade dig the soil along this strip then. Is there anything I should add to the soil? Would some nitrogen or 18 6 12 be of benefit? I don’t want to burn roots with fertiliser or is that even possible?

4) planning a straight line with a plant every 14-18 inches or so. Would two staggered lines be better?

5) is bamboo advisable to keep plants straight for first year or two?

Thanks,

looksee

Your plan sounds good, planting for bare root is any time from late October to April - pretty much when the bare roots are available. Try to plant them as soon as possible after receiving them and keep them outdoors with the roots covered and damp. You could add some bonemeal to the soil (mix it in well) but I don't believe its necessary to add fertiliser to shrubs and trees. A single line should be ok unless you want a particularly massive hedge?

Plant very firmly (it is quite possible to plant into just a slit in the ground, rather than digging a trench) and not too deep. Keep the hedging clear of weeds.

Its not usual to individually support hedging, though it may be useful to add a wind break fabric if the site is exposed, it can make a considerable difference to the quality of the resulting hedge. A stretched wire along the hedge to give the plants a bit of support might be good. If you are dotting in trees then a support for them would be a good idea. You might need to protect against rabbits, they can do a lot of damage very quickly. A lot depends on the site and how exposed it is, whether there are any adjacent walls or fences.

893bet

Planting into a “slit” would be a lot more convienient, no danger the soil will be too hard/ compact for the hedge to thrive after that?

If using slit method I assume bone meal is out then? The lawn is very fertile in any case.

There is a fence behind it and I did plan on putting a wind breaker up. More of the wind will come from the other same side the hedge is however.

Bill Hook

893bet wrote: »

Planting into a “slit” would be a lot more convienient, no danger the soil will be too hard/ compact for the hedge to thrive after that?

If using slit method I assume bone meal is out then? The lawn is very fertile in any case.

There is a fence behind it and I did plan on putting a wind breaker up. More of the wind will come from the other same side the hedge is however.

Planted a 40m bareroot hedge in Feb 2019 using Trees on the Land trees. Strimmed a 1m strip hard to the ground and slit planted directly into the ground in two rows about 30cm apart, staggered zig-zag fashion. The trees were mostly whitethorn with a few rowan, oak and blackthorn. No maintenance since and it is doing grand apart from a few that had to be replaced because the ESB lads trampled them down. Whitethorn seems to be bomb proof so I don't know if such a minimal care regime would work with beech.

looksee

The slit method of planting is used for tiny new trees for forestry, I have no personal experience of planting larger hedging in this way, maybe someone who has done this will be along with advice.

Lumen

Keeping the base weed free is really important for growth rates but will drive you demented the first few years.

With bare root I'd be inclined to lay down a roll of permeable weed barrier and plant through slits, and then take up the barrier after a few years when the hedge is established.

Lumen

Oh, and for beech I think staggered lines is a good idea if you can afford the extra depth, as thin beech hedging looks crap.

Don't plant too close to the boundary. I have fences on the boundary and planted three feet away, so that when I eventually need to replace the fence I don't have to replace the hedge. Three feet seems like a massive distance when you're planting, but a couple of years later it looks perfect.

westsidestory

looksee wrote: »

The slit method of planting is used for tiny new trees for forestry, I have no personal experience of planting larger hedging in this way, maybe someone who has done this will be along with advice.

If you have strong healthy plants they should have a nice long root system that will require pit planting allowing the roots to bed in better. Forcing long roots into a slit planting has the roots turning up on itself etc. and will affect growth.

If your soil is decent I'd not bother with feeding when planting, hard to beat a good 2" layer of mulch (no fresh green stuff) on top to feed and assist in weed suppression.

macraignil

westsidestory wrote: »

If you have strong healthy plants they should have a nice long root system that will require pit planting allowing the roots to bed in better. Forcing long roots into a slit planting has the roots turning up on itself etc. and will affect growth.

If your soil is decent I'd not bother with feeding when planting, hard to beat a good 2" layer of mulch (no fresh green stuff) on top to feed and assist in weed suppression.

There is also the view that digging a trench for your hedge and back filling it once the plants are in the ground is inverting all of the soil around the plant roots with top soil being buried deep and sub soil being brought up to the surface. The extra soil disturbance will also effect the growth of the hedge. I have done both and in my opinion the trench planted hedge was slower to start growing and it was a lot of extra work to back fill after a digger had done the trench digging.


Here is a clip of a hedge I planted with slits for individual hedge plant roots and it has grown without problems. No mulch was used as it was too long but I did keep the competing vegetation under control manually for the first year. Once you don't get hedge plants that are too big the roots should fit in a slit OK and its my opinion that there is not much advantage in paying more for larger hedge plants as the smaller ones seem to settle faster and catch up in size while being less prone to wind damage and easier to plant.

MacDanger

westsidestory wrote: »

If you have strong healthy plants they should have a nice long root system that will require pit planting allowing the roots to bed in better. Forcing long roots into a slit planting has the roots turning up on itself etc. and will affect growth.

If your soil is decent I'd not bother with feeding when planting, hard to beat a good 2" layer of mulch (no fresh green stuff) on top to feed and assist in weed suppression.

We've just removed a huge leylandii hedge and mulched (industrial mulcher) all the branches. We're replacing it with bare root plants this autumn - should we keep some of the mulch for around the base of the new hedge? Would it be possible to use turf mold instead?

Bill Hook

macraignil wrote: »

Here is a clip of a hedge I planted with slits for individual hedge plant roots and it has grown without problems. No mulch was used as it was too long but I did keep the competing vegetation under control manually for the first year. Once you don't get hedge plants that are too big the roots should fit in a slit OK and its my opinion that there is not much advantage in paying more for larger hedge plants as the smaller ones seem to settle faster and catch up in size while being less prone to wind damage and easier to plant.

Nice hedge and nice video. I looked at your First Pruning clip too. Did you prune the tops at all?

My hedge went in Feb 2019 and I was thinking of pruning it for the first time this winter. I was going to clip the tops and sides of all the whitethorn with a view to getting them to fill out at the bottom and hopefully become nice and dense.

macraignil

Bill Hook wrote: »

Nice hedge and nice video. I looked at your First Pruning clip too. Did you prune the tops at all?

My hedge went in Feb 2019 and I was thinking of pruning it for the first time this winter. I was going to clip the tops and sides of all the whitethorn with a view to getting them to fill out at the bottom and hopefully become nice and dense.

Thanks.
Only pruned the sides. Since they are too big now to get in and weed around the hedge plants properly I wanted to be sure they would be able to grow higher than the weeds and it seems to be working well.



I realise some people are more interested in promoting the lower down growth but I don't really mind if there are some small gaps lower down as there is a double row planted fairly close so even with one stem there wouldn't be space for a horse to pass through.

westsidestory

macraignil wrote: »

There is also the view that digging a trench for your hedge and back filling it once the plants are in the ground is inverting all of the soil around the plant roots with top soil being buried deep and sub soil being brought up to the surface. The extra soil disturbance will also effect the growth of the hedge. I have done both and in my opinion the trench planted hedge was slower to start growing and it was a lot of extra work to back fill after a digger had done the trench digging.


Here is a clip of a hedge I planted with slits for individual hedge plant roots and it has grown without problems. No mulch was used as it was too long but I did keep the competing vegetation under control manually for the first year. Once you don't get hedge plants that are too big the roots should fit in a slit OK and its my opinion that there is not much advantage in paying more for larger hedge plants as the smaller ones seem to settle faster and catch up in size while being less prone to wind damage and easier to plant.

Digging a trench that would bring up subsoil to the top would be counter productive I would have thought. Everything depends on soil and site conditions, good soil and drainage is very forgiving. When planting forestry years ago we slit planted for conifers and were supposed to pit plant for deciduous. Trench planting would be worth the extra work in poorer or compacted soils where soil etc could be added. That's how I would decide how to proceed.

Agree on the planting sizes of the bareroot plants, the big ones can take longer to take off but nice long bushy roots should be pit planted. Clients will dictate how important height and instant effect is. Thank God I'm no longer planting forestry from sunrise to sunset in the pi55ings of rain!!

westsidestory

MacDanger wrote: »

We've just removed a huge leylandii hedge and mulched (industrial mulcher) all the branches. We're replacing it with bare root plants this autumn - should we keep some of the mulch for around the base of the new hedge? Would it be possible to use turf mold instead?

If you have room to store the mulch till it has broke down from the fresh green way it is after being chipped then hold off spreading it till next year. Freshly chipped mulch soaks up nitrogen taking it away from the plants you are mulching about, same reason why spreading fresh grass about plants like used be done in times past is not advisable...even if the nitrogen is eventually released in the future again.