Beech hedge

tommy1509

Hello, I set my beech hedge in october 2018 but it seems a bit sorry for itself. Some leaves are struggling to come out and other plants seem to be dead. The ones that have come out are gone a bit green brown. Is it lacking nutrients. What fertilizer would suit? Trees are about 3-4 feet tall.

Please help

Fairygirl

Have you a picture with a wider view- showing the bases etc?
They're very close to the fence too. What prep did you do, and were they watered thoroughly last year when establishing? 

New growth often looks like that anyway though.

tommy1509

I would of watered well prior to setting them and regularly after too and put some fertilizer in with the roots when planting. Trees are about a foot apart.I gave them some tomatoe feed too.

tommy1509

The fence is on the north side of the trees too so plenty sun.

fidgetbones

If you planted Oct 2018, did they all break leaf last summer? If so, did you water regularly through the summer?  Some of those look dead, or they could just be very late coming into leaf, but the only way they would have died if they were alive and growing early last year, is lack of water.  I have a long beech hedge, and there is up to a week between the first one breaking new leaves and the last one. They do change leaf colour in the first couple of weeks, starting light green, often a tinge of brown, and then going darker green.

Fairygirl

What is the soil like though? Did you dig it over and add any organic matter - compost, manure etc?
I'm not sure why you've given them tomato food - that's for flowering plants. Some bone meal, or Blood, Fish and Bone on planting, and maybe another sprinkle of that last year is all they would ever need. They need all the weed growth in the bed cleared too. That's just competition for everything. Mulching after watering helps too, especially if they're in the sun.

You could give them a little prune back to a good pair of leaf joints - that will help them preserve moisture, and encourage bushiness. They've probably been short of water last year, just as they were getting going. It's very easy to underestimate how much water hedging needs, even without the drought many areas had last year.
It'll have taken them a bit longer to get their roots down too- it's a very narrow border, so it even more important to ensure they have deep watering so that roots can then search out moisture more easily for themselves too 

tommy1509

I gave them some multipurpose compost and grain fertilizer when planting and mixed well with soil. Soil is good. The earth is covered in tree bark to lock in moisture. I water them well but maybe they need more. I have 18 6 12 fertilizer, would that suit them? I'll try get some bone meal

Thanks

Fairygirl

Sorry - I don't know what grain fertiliser is. 
With a well prepped site and some general feed [as I mentioned] hedging needs nothing much. I've never fed any hedge I've had beyond what I've described. A sunny site, or a windy one, means more watering. Each plant would need in the region of a canful of water every few days, unless you plant as bare root through autumn/winter. That watering needs to be continued for several months, unless you live in a wet area and get persistent, heavy rainfall. Even then, they'd need watering through any sustained dry periods.

It's the general condition and health of soil that matters when planting anything. If the soil's half decent, and they're properly watered, that's all beech, and most hedging plants,  need