[mary mary]

Hi all,
I am a long time lurker, first time poster here. Hoping ye can help me with a problem I have with some hedging.

Last winter, I planted ~ 100ft of Future Forests (Bantry, Cork) Neat Natural Hedge mix. It has come on well, and has been putting out new growth all summer, but now I notice some of the leaves are turning brown and dying. The hawthorn and the field maple have been affected. I am not sure if it's the same problem on both, as they look a bit different. I've added some pics here.

Whole 'twigs' of the hawthorn plants now seem to be shrivelling up and dying, and some of the leaves have a white powdery kind of coating on them. It looks like this could be mildew? They were surrounded by high grass for a few weeks, as I failed to weed them.....I can only guess this isn't good for them.

The field maple does not have the white powdery coating. The leaves just seem to be going brown from the tips back.

Any help would be appreciated. I'm really afraid that this could be fireblight or something that will kill them.

[tagwex]

Welcome to the forum, eventually!
Are you the Mary Mary that is quite contrary?
Was there any advantage in 'lurking' as you are not the first that has said that and I often wondered why people do it. As for your problem I haven't a clue, not in my area of knowledge at all. Some of the more intelligent ones will be along later.

[mary mary]

Yay! Someone figured out my username idea....

Lurking because really I have nothing to contribute.
Know next to nothing about gardening. Come here for ideas really. House is a new build, so we're trying to lay out the garden with the last year or so.

[mary mary]

Like 'The Field' quotation by the way.
'Go on away home now Yank' - my own personal favourite!

[Good guy]

I'm not sure but the problems may be related to stress in a new planting. New plants can have difficulty getting enough water, especially if it is dry and windy. Too much rain can give them a hard time too and plants under stress are much more likely to develop problems with mildew etc than are healthy ones. As for wind damage, all the leaves on a beautiful Japanese maple of mine shrivelled after a gale in June. They have grown back, after a fashion.

Just as the pain in one's toe is unlikely to be some dreaded disease, it is most unlikely that your trees have fire blight or anything similar! Look after them carefully (the grass!!) and next year they will probably grow strongly for you.

[tagwex]

Ahhh the rest of them are just slow as you will no doubt find out!
Everyone has something to contribute, general banter is enough sometimes, sure I have been getting away with it for years.
We call the place an gort in deference to a brilliant movie and that quote just seemed so right with what happened here.
" I'll dance with ye, Red, the Bull McCabe will dance with the tinker's daughter".

[mary mary]

Thanks gg.
Do you think I should cut off the bits with the mildewy stuff on?

[Greengage]

I would say your problem is stress related, Probabl ycaused by competition from weeds/grass and lack of water I Know only too well that its very wet but maybe it didnt get to your roots, You could have a small problem with mildew but i wouldnt worry about that it will sort itself out.
The die back in the field maple is natural I even notice it on some big trees around here, In general all is good weed and check for moisture around roots. If it was me I would have pruned the whitethorn back to 4 inches to encourage bushy-ness near the base otherwise you will have gaps or could end up with a bottle brush effect later . It takes a brave person to do it but it has to be done better for the plant in the long run.

[mary mary]

Thanks Greengage. Good to hear that it's probably nothing serious. It is definitely possible that water didn't get to the roots, as the high grass could actually have been sheltering the base of the shrubs pretty well!

Just a quick question on pruning. I've been reading up about it, and I understand the general idea i.e. clip the leader and the plant will put out more sideshoots. But, I've a few questions if you don't mind?

1. Can you kill a plant by pruning? I didn't prune at the start, and now some plants are 3 ft and all leggy. Could I cut right back to 6 inches now? Could I cut at point B, on the pic? Or would I kill the plant?

2. There's a good few places on the main leader where it has put out a thorn and a leaf. I've marked two of these with A in the pic. Will these develop into branches eventually, or are they just leaves?

Thanks

[Good guy]

I went to a hedgerow workshop a few years ago, as part of Heritage Week. There was a demo of layering a hedge, which was very interesting. It was followed by a hedge planting demo.
It was a mixed hedge of hawthorn and other species. Once the trench had been prepared (done in advance) the demonstrator covered it with a strip of polythene - all about 2ft wide. He then made slits with his spade and planted the bare-rooted young plants into them, before covering the whole row with a good layer of stone chip pings. This was to hold the plastic down, he said and to exclude light.
He stressed the vital importance of suppressing all growth of grass. Finally, he cut back every plant to about 6 inches to ensure a bushy base to the hedge.

I doubt if pruning your plants severely will do them any harm. Just make sure to prune immediately above a side shoot. But you must first do something about the grass.

Personally, I would pull out as much as I could by hand, getting rid of roots as well, if possible. Then mulch with cardboard/old carpet/plastic topped with a good layer of chippings.

[Greengage]

I would wait until Autumn now sept/Oct and cut back to 4 inches if they are all healthy now you will do no harm I would also agree with good guys views.

[mary mary]

Thanks for all the help folks. Monster weeding job to be done, lash down some bark mulch, a hard prune in winter, and then hope for the best. Wish me luck!

[tagwex]

Best of luck, keep us informed.

[Good guy]

Consider it wished!