Pruning a new hedge, slightly unsure.

Hi there,

I am a bit of a novice when it comes to gardening, so please bear with me! I planted a bare-root beech hedge late last year; it should, retrospectively have been hornbeam, but it's not. Due to the cold weather, the leaves only started appearing a week or two ago, but thankfully they are appearing - it looks like three or four may not have survived, so I'll have to replace them in Winter. I think I should have planted them further back from the border, but there's not a lot I can do about that now.

The question (finally) is when should I prune them, to maximise side growth? I should probably have nipped the tips when I planted them, so should I now wait until Winter?

 

Hi there, and thank you; this looks like a good spot for picking up tips - now that I have a garden.

Oh I see, so I don't want to bother trimming the tops until it gets to that height? That would certainly make less work.

 

Don't dig them out yet ... Beech is quite variable about when it comes into leaf, some will be several weeks behind the first one.

Now! Next year you need to do it earlier, either after the leaves go brown in Late Autumn or during the Winter - before they came into leaf. Unless the nursery has suggested / suggests taking 1/3rd of the new growth off for the first couple of years (worth asking them, seems harsh, but its critical to getting them to thicken up at the base ... but it depends on the height of the plants you bought, and to a certain extent how they were grown ...) then just nip out the terminal bud - on both the leading shoot, and ALL side shoots. Do that for the first 3 years (or until there is so much growth that its just too hard to do! You might then still do the leading buds at the top).

Let the hedge "leader(s)" grow at least 6" past the final height you want, and then in the following Autumn / Winter cut them back to 6" below the final height, and then following August (approx), and every year after that, cut the top of the hedge at final-height with your trusty hedge trimmer / shears.

Ideally have a "batter" on the sides (make them slope so that the hedge is thicker at the bottom than the top).

Personally I would put a high Nitrogen fertiliser (Ammonium sulphate, for example) on them right now (ideally earlier when the buds are really fat and about to "break") as this will elongate the initial growth spurt and get the hedge to final height sooner. Don't go mad! a small handful along a metre or a bit more of length will do. Better to do less and then repeat the application shortly after the buds have broken. Do this just before it rains (otherwise you will have to water it in).

 

Wonderful; thank you for such a detailed reply.

It looks like I'd better get out there and start nipping!