Thuja hedge is dying, disease?

JohmD

Hi!

I invested some quite some money to buy quite grown Thuja hedge last november. It was planted by gardnerers and I was irrigating the hedge with drip hose.

The hedge is getting brown from this spring on and it is getting worse. Here are the pictures, what could that be and how to save the hedge? It is terrible.

http://shrani.si/f/2P/E6/2YLaLmZl/wp20170928004.jpg

http://shrani.si/f/17/Bj/4bz6JkM5/wp20170928005.jpg

http://shrani.si/f/3j/u4/2fIg2kdE/wp20170928006.jpg

The land is dry, but still the hedge should grow. All of them are dying. I had some problems with the neighbour, could someone be poisoning the hedge?

Thank you 

Last edited: 28 September 2017 17:21:53

treehugger80

did you water all winter?

if you did you may have started drowning it, you only need to water during dry weather, otherwise you can drown it, or alternatively you can make to hedge not root into the surrounding soil (after all why look for water when it gets delivered)

it just looks like a little die back, they will be fine, go in and cut out the little brown bits and stop watering, by next year they will be fine.

JohmD

No, I did not water it during winter. I did not water it a lot at all, only once per week during peak summer. (I am afraid I did not water it enough, but those hedges should be resilient to dry weather)

It is strange, neighbours hedges seem healthy, but my is getting worse,

Dovefromabove

My thoughts are that as a newly planted hedge it may well have struggled with the dry spring and early summer (if you had the same weather as we did).  Although an established hedge can  usually cope  with fairly dry conditions, yours hadn't really had a chance to get going.  We had quite a few queries earlier this year from people whose shrubs and hedges were struggling with the drought conditions.

However, as treehugger says, your hedge isn't doing too badly ... remove the brown sprigs and the rest of the branches should soon fill the gaps.

It would also help the hedge if the base was cleared of grass which competes for moisture and nutrition.   

Last edited: 29 September 2017 09:40:14

JohmD

Yes the spring and summer were dry. My other older hedge (Ligustrum vulgare) also had a rough season with little growth. I will water it more next year if needed and without drip hose.I will also remove brown sprigs. I just hope it is not thuja blight. 

Thank you!