Beech hedge problems.

B

Baby boomer

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I planted a beech hedge two years ago. It's doing ok-ish but not exactly thriving. The best word I could use to describe it is scraggly. Or patchy. Last year some of the plants didn't take at all and produced no leaves whatsoever. ( @RedOnion here suggested I might have planted them too deep and I think this might well be the case. ) However even most of these are now producing buds and even some leaves so all might not be lost.
It's now the time of the year when the leaves are turning green and I'm wondering if a dose of fertilizer would be a good idea. And if so, what type, bonemeal, 10-10-10 etc etc?

It's good soil, neither too wet nor too dry. Plants are about six inches apart and have grown very little upwards - from about two/three feet when planted to about three/four feet now. A near neighbour planted a similar hedge four years ago and it's really thriving, nice and leafy, and more than six foot high. He uses a soaker hose (in dry weather only) but hasn't used fertilizer except at the initial planting stage. We both got the plants from the same nursery so it's hard to figure out what I might be doing wrong.

Or am I overthinking this and should I just let nature take its course and it'll come right in time?
 
Have you watered it?, I would say maybe some bonemeal or farmyard manure and a regular watering until the hedge establishes, this winter was not that wet, also the recent spell has been cold and harsh with not much rain. The soil could have become hard , also last year had long dry spells which would have required some watering as well.
 
Watered it regularly during the dry spells last summer. Haven't done any watering so far this year. Every time I thought about doing so, it inevitably rained right on cue!
I was thinking bonemeal might be the way to go. It's done wonders for a few apple trees I planted.
 
So every plant is 6 inches from 2 others? The recommended planting distance is 12 to 18 inches and that is from people who sell plants. I think they are too close together for the roots to establish. The more successful are crowding out the less.
 
No! Every plant is 12 inches from the other ones in its own row. The second row is six inches away from the first and (roughly) parallel to it. The plants in the second row are offset by 6 inches from the first row. The distance between any two adjacent plants in separate rows is therefore the hypothenuse of a right angle triangle with shorter sides of 6 inches. That hypothenuse length is the square root of two (✓2) times 6 inches which is about 9 inches. In practice, it's a bit longer as I thought it looked better to widen the separation between the rows slightly as I went along.

Anyway, I modelled that planting arrangement on what the neighbour had done and his hedge is thriving. The only thing he's done differently is to put in the soaker hose and he says he only uses that mainly in summer. Incidentally the advice from the nursery guy was to water sparingly as a wet soil might rot the roots.
 
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Newly planted trees and shrubs need to be well watered for a few years to establish a good root system. The greatest cause of poor performance of newly planted trees and shrubs is lack of water. Bone meal will encourage roots. Its been very dry all winter and it takes days of downpours to get a decent amount of water into the soil beneath plants. Your neighbours approach was the right one, lots of water to get good roots established.
 
Its still very young and as others said watering might be an issue it has been very dry , April rainfall was very small. You mentioned the bone meal I'd use that .

Young beech hedges don't like competition so if I would clear out any non beech growth and turn the soil....
 
Thank you all for the helpful suggestions. Bonemeal and watering it is so. Plus clear out the competition.

Progress will be reported on in the Autumn!
 
I also think watering is probably the issue, lots of rain today but a beech hedge is basically a tree and take lots of water to wet the roots. The last couple of years have had long dry spells and the harsh windy weather recently is very drying also exasperates struggling plants
 
Thanks, that makes sense. I think I underestimated the amount of watering required.
 
Beech are only just breaking bud now so should respond well to water and bone meal in the coming weeks. Best of luck.
 
We had the same problem and we were told to leave it well alone and it would thrive in time. Which it did. Nobody mentioned bonemeal. The idea of watering it bemuses me given the sort of climate we have.
 
You would be amazed how dry garden soil can be in Ireland, especially when it's windy (and we have had lots of windy weather these past few years). Concrete drives, house and wall shadow, other established plants with good roots, all reduce the water availability to newly planted plants. Newly planted plants need nurturing, especially shrubs and trees - water is needed to encourage root development in the first year or two and the bigger the plant the more water it will take. No water, then root development is poor, and the plant suffers. The proof is in the survival rate. Bonemeal encourages root development so a little sprinkle will help the wee plants on their way but water is the number one - obviously not to over saturation and drowning, too much is also not good.
 
It also depends where you are the west and south would always be wetter and warmer that the east, we were in Wexford recently most beech hedges had new leaves here they still look dormant.
 
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