Beech Hedge Feed

sebdavis

I have a beech hedge which is struggling to grow. I was talking to someone and he mentioned it could be because we took large trees out and then put them in, all the nutrients is gone from the ground and said to get feed or something for the trees

Just wondering what do people recommend? I also have huge issues with grass around them and end up pulling by hand all the time. Will the feed just feed the grass?

Anything I can spray around them to kill the grass first and then feed? dont want to risk using weed killer in case I kill the tree

Thanks

looksee

Were they leylandii that you took out? Either way the person is probably right. Could you cut away the grass completely and top up with soil and well rotted manure (you can buy bags of it, a bag would go a long way)?

sebdavis

looksee wrote: »

Were they leylandii that you took out? Either way the person is probably right. Could you cut away the grass completely and top up with soil and well rotted manure (you can buy bags of it, a bag would go a long way)?

Yes, the dreaded leylandii.

Open to any ideas, at the weekend I pulled all the grass away

looksee

Leylandii are notorious for creating soil that nothing will grow in. How long has the hedge been in? If they were put in within say 12 months i would seriously consider taking them out and replacing the soil. Otherwise just mulch with soil and compost or manure. Don't put soil up the stems of the Beech trees. You are just within the time of year you could lift them before the growing season starts, but you would have to be quick. If they have been in for more than about 12 months I suggest you leave them.

Fern Bench

sebdavis wrote: »

I have a beech hedge which is struggling to grow. I was talking to someone and he mentioned it could be because we took large trees out and then put them in, all the nutrients is gone from the ground and said to get feed or something for the trees

Just wondering what do people recommend? I also have huge issues with grass around them and end up pulling by hand all the time. Will the feed just feed the grass?

Anything I can spray around them to kill the grass first and then feed? dont want to risk using weed killer in case I kill the tree

Thanks

It's the grass. Newly planted trees will make little progress when surrounded by grass. You need to spray the grass, do it now before the leaves open on the beech. It's a job I did myself only last week. When the grass is killed you could add some sort of a mulch to keep the weeds down, wood chip, grass clippings, leaves, etc. Just don't have it touching the stem of the tree.

sebdavis

looksee wrote: »

Leylandii are notorious for creating soil that nothing will grow in. How long has the hedge been in? If they were put in within say 12 months i would seriously consider taking them out and replacing the soil. Otherwise just mulch with soil and compost or manure. Don't put soil up the stems of the Beech trees. You are just within the time of year you could lift them before the growing season starts, but you would have to be quick. If they have been in for more than about 12 months I suggest you leave them.

The leylandii was cut out about 5 years ago, the beech hedge is in 3 years.

I planted some more 12 months ago as loads had died.

I have ordered 2 tonne of soil mixed with compost, I was going to get some manure and then throw top soil on top of it and hope that would help them grow.....good/bad plan?

https://mulch.ie/product/farmyard-manure
Maybe some of this?

looksee

Maybe someone else will know better, but they are suggesting 5 to 8 cm of the mulch, as a mulch. It sounds as though it may be mostly straw with some manure through it, and in that case its an expensive way of doing it, especially as you are getting soil as well. You can buy bags of farmyard manure that is much more concentrated and just needs a scattering. I can't imagine putting down actual manure in that kind of depth as a mulch.

The ground should have been improved when the tree stumps were taken out and before planting the hedging, but its easy to be wise after the event and all you can do now is improve the conditions from the top down, as you are doing.

magicbastarder

pee on it.
(not actually joking)

Fern Bench

I lost a few beech trees from my newly planted hedge in an area where the soil was very compacted after a digger did pipe works. The ground in that area never drained properly. If the soil holds a lot of water over winter it's bad news for the beech. I replanted some but raised them on a mound of compost and clay.

Maybe the soil is compacted after the machinery that removed the leylandii?

sebdavis

Fern Bench wrote: »

I lost a few beech trees from my newly planted hedge in an area where the soil was very compacted after a digger did pipe works. The ground in that area never drained properly. If the soil holds a lot of water over winter it's bad news for the beech. I replanted some but raised them on a mound of compost and clay.

Maybe the soil is compacted after the machinery that removed the leylandii?

I think my problem is the ground is so full of roots from the Leylandii. I got a guy in to do the trees but really he just dug mini holes and dropped them in. I expected more for what I paid but history now. I think he found it hard digging down so just made sure roots got covered and then legged it :-)

I have order 2 tonne of soil for other bits in garden and they gave me a large bag a manure on the cheap as well. I think I will load it up over the weekend and hopefully that will help. Some of the trees are flying in sections but others have hardly grown in the 3 years.

Also they went in around 2-3 weeks before the really bad snow 3 years ago so they got a hammered a few weeks later, I thought this was part of the problem at the start but at this stage they should be making a better attempt at growing

MacDanger

looksee wrote: »

Leylandii are notorious for creating soil that nothing will grow in

My veg patch will be putting this to the test this year - approx. 2/3 of it is where I planted last year and the remaining 1/3 is new following the removal of 35-year old Leylandii so it'll be interesting to see how the two patches fare out. It's mainly potatoes and carrots I'll be planting. I've spread a small amount of seaweed on both sections but nothing otherwise.

magicbastarder

i cut down and dug out leylandii about seven years ago (probably 30 foot long hedge, 8 foot thick and 12 foot tall) and dug down around the roots and removed as much of the rootballs as possible. dug in some manure, and the fruit trees i planted in their place are doing fine.

i suspect the soil being dried out by the leylandii is as much to do with how good it is, as it is nutrients being removed. once the soil gets consistently damp again, the microfauna move back in.

MacDanger

Fern Bench wrote: »

It's the grass. Newly planted trees will make little progress when surrounded by grass. You need to spray the grass, do it now before the leaves open on the beech. It's a job I did myself only last week. When the grass is killed you could add some sort of a mulch to keep the weeds down, wood chip, grass clippings, leaves, etc. Just don't have it touching the stem of the tree.

We have a newly planted copper beech hedging and I'm looking at putting some mulch down around it to help it get established - we have bags and bags of turf moul in some shed, would this work okay as a mulch?

MacDanger

MacDanger wrote: »

We have a newly planted copper beech hedging and I'm looking at putting some mulch down around it to help it get established - we have bags and bags of turf moul in some shed, would this work okay as a mulch?

Any ideas on this?

macraignil

MacDanger wrote: »

Any ideas on this?

Not sure what "turf moul" is but potting compost has often been made from peat which is the same material as turf used to burn for heat so it could be used as a mulch if you wanted to. Not sure how well it would keep the weeds down but you will probably need to do some manual weed control anyway regardless of what type of mulch is used.

MacDanger

macraignil wrote: »

Not sure what "turf moul" is but potting compost has often been made from peat which is the same material as turf used to burn for heat so it could be used as a mulch if you wanted to. Not sure how well it would keep the weeds down but you will probably need to do some manual weed control anyway regardless of what type of mulch is used.

Turf moul (not sure if there's a proper name for it) is the small bits of turf and dust left behind after dried turf has been stored somewhere. So the same material as peat but it's hard like turf is rather than soft material