Bare root hedging plants

[onthehoof]

Water, water,water first year

 

[solo]

I heel the bundles of plants I to the soil as soon as they arrive and then lift and bag firmly to stop the wind getting to the roots whilst driving to the planting area. I then cut a bundle of 50 open and stand the roots in a bucket of water which I use to carry them whilst planting. It takes a little longer but I think it's worthwhile as losses over the last decade have been no more than 1%.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

The bigger they are the easier they fail.
just make sure nothing can eat them, such as rabbits , hares, dear etc.
keep them watered

I planted small ones lost almost the lot in dry weather . Replanted with some over grown things this spring only lost 2

 

[Treecreeper]

I would plant them in the ground in the garden before I got round to planting them, rather than keep in the bags, when I worked for Wyevale we used to call it putting them in the plunge

Heeling in is good if there is an extended delay to planting, you can keep any extras overseason like this.

 

[Devon James]

If planting along the top of a grassy bank, how would you go about it...thinking weed control?

 

[beef 1]

I need to buy about 1500 hawthorn hedge plants. Anyone got any good suggestions for where to buy?

Also @Clive is it worth having a stewardship section for topics and ideas about where to source capital items and seed etc for CSS and mid tier agreements ?

Johnstons of Whixley

 

[solo]

If planting along the top of a grassy bank, how would you go about it...thinking weed control?

Roundup along the planting area well in advance would be ideal. Using plastic tubes around the plants allows you to carefully apply round up to control weeds. You can use kerb from 12 months after planting which will prolong weed control too. The plants will do better if they aren’t competing with weeds in the first couple of years.

 

[S J H]

sadly I don't think they grow much themselves

No I'm sure they don't. But always have a very good selection.

Roundup along the planting area well in advance would be ideal. Using plastic tubes around the plants allows you to carefully apply round up to control weeds. You can use kerb from 12 months after planting which will prolong weed control too. The plants will do better if they aren’t competing with weeds in the first couple of years.

Someone told me once not to spray around, just let them compete and it will hold the moisture in the ground. I don't know if it's true, but I've done and it seems to work. This would be in a double fence, and not guarded.

 

[essexpete]

Drying out pre-planting can be avoided by covering the buddle roots in a well a composted mulch.
Moisture is the key for the first summer and possibly the second. Dad and I hardly lost a plant where we mulched with a compost and installed a weeping water pipe. Other areas were 95% OK on poorly drained clay/loam soils even when planted in very wet conditions and subsequently not watered.
One run planted on a sandy soil and without mulch or water struggled and has continued to struggle.

 

[Treecreeper]

If planting along the top of a grassy bank, how would you go about it...thinking weed control?

There are fibre mats for weed suppression they are about a foot across, why not recycle old Hessian, make sure anything else used is porus.