Hornbeam hedge not growing much

Fri Apr 24, 2009 2:42 pm

Hopefully there will be someone out there who will think there is an obvious answer to my problem.

We planted a hornbeam hedge with 60-90cm plants in March 2007, the tops of these were cut at the time (as instructed) and they were planted with Rootgrow. This Winter just gone I cut the tops out again to help them bush at the bottom but considering this is coming up to their third Summer they do not seem to have done much growing.

The garden centre that I bought them from has pictures on their website of a hornbeam hedge in years 1, 2 and 3 and year 3s hedge is much thicker and taller than mine.

Does anyone have any ideas as to why this might be?!

Fri Apr 24, 2009 4:34 pm

Could be the soil. Dig down around the ball to check the soil. About 12" down. See if it is too damp or dry. Did you amend the soil when filling back the hole? Should give it a handful of bonemeal to promote root growth. Not too late for that. Sometimes plants go into shock when they are orginally dug out of the ground but since this is the third and if the soil is okay you should see new growth. You can always ask the nursery where you got them from to see what the problem could be.

Sat Apr 25, 2009 9:41 am

Thanks for your help - I will give the bonemeal a try.
The thing is the trees are growing just not very fast or at least not as fast as they should be.