Help! Do not know what to do!!!

Hi all.

This is my first ever post in any type of forum and I hope that you might be able to hep me. I noticecd that as from roughly december of 2010 my privets have started to die off. It began with them dying off at the top and now it has worked it's way down a portion of them right to the bottem of the roots.

I have checked for any rubbish that might have been left by my neighbour or some sort of contaniment but there is nothing that I can see(such as oil).

I don't want for this to spread so I am writing here in the hope that someone might know what is going on.

The fence that is next to the privet has been there for 5 -6 years so I don't think it can be that.

I have attatched 3 photo's to aid in detecting the proble. I hope that someone can as the rest of the privets are fine around the back garden and I realy don't want this to spread.

Thanks for your time in advance, Gerry.

 

They have been pruned to hard and the hedge has been killed, trim little and often.

When I visit gardens to do work I find this alot. Normally the hedge has been trimmed by Cowboy gardeners and they killed it.

HTH

Lad'0

 

Privet can be attacked by Honey Fungus which causes areas of dieback

Look in the soil at the base of the plants for characteristic black bootlaces, and remove the bark at the base of the plants to see if a white mycelium strands are present, this would be a definite symptom of Honey Fungus .It will have a mushroom smell about it..
Just another thought on the problem

Dave

 

About the only thing to kill Privet is honey fungus, cutting it too hard back is never fatal. Look inside the " dead " plant for new growth.

 

Hi again.

I had a look for black bootlaces and the white stuff but was thwarted by a solid defensive wall of spider webs. It's either many spiders doing one web each or one with nothing better to do than mark its territory all over the show. It was really quite impressive but it meant that I couldn't get right in. I couldn't really see anything.

I'm leaning towards buying some Armillatox.

Am I right in thinking that 'it couldn't hurt'.

Also I forgot to mention that at the top of the privets there is some growth that looks completely healthy and natural.

I appreciate your time and ideas, Gerry.