Farmers & young trees.

[suffolksmallholder]

Driving out today to get my old truck MOT'd I couldn't help but notice the mad rush to GET-THE-HEDGES-DONE before the deadline.
Machinery out everywhere.
Now there's been some grant aided hedge planting in spots which is great to see but I was saddened to see the pretty poor attitude taken by some of the supposed hedge trimming experts. Now I've only ever operated one hedge trimmer & consider myself a non-expert but I do have a top-of-the-range-hedgetrimmer & sling mechanism which allows me to do 'more' than most.
One run of three year old planting has tall guards every 20 metres & in these are 'standards' which are trees that will eventually, if allowed, become those land-mark items that the countryside needs. This has been doing quite well considering the lack of maintenance/input (probably as it didn't cost in real terms)
Today however I noticed ALL the young stock had been trimmed down to the flail height, even the 'standards'. This was a shock and saddened me mainly because I & thousands of others paid for these to be planted. In time they would have benefitted the area & the farmer too.
Now is this normal behaviour or is it just that no-one cares?
These standards can, with careful pruning be trained to grow up into proper hedgerow trees & reach their full potential but will anyone give-a-sh1t or consider doing this job? Resulting in another drab bit of hedgerow that no-one cares about.
Rant over
SS

 

[Derrick Hughes]

leave a sappling every 25 yards when hedge laying but drive a steel post in by it or the hedge cutter man will have it off .they hate them

 

[Bury the Trash]

I care

Those 'smack it off' numpties should be banned from the job...

 

[solo]

That is one of the reasons I bought my own hedgecutter. Contractor would drive around such trees and the flails would just skim the top off the leading branch. It used to drive me mad considering the effort to plant and hand trim around them to get them established. Most are doing well now, planted in the mid 1980’s.

 

[nick...]

Do my own too and take care to do a good job.some contractors rush too much and don’t take enough pride in their work
Nick...

 

[ARW]

I always ask for young trees to be marked, you sometimes forget and cut them off!

 

[Blod]

@Kevtherev what’s your preferred marking for trees/sapling to leave?

I can understand the occasional mistake but years ago I was debt collecting for a contractor. When I was taken to see the stumps of a cherry avenue that had clearly been standing 10ft proud of the hedge I was a bit challenged. Especially when shown a photo of it in bloom the year before. Surprisingly we settled and the contractor went back the following year.

 

[Kevtherev]

If they want trees left in a new hedge I usually see the standards to be left but a carrier bag tied or some yellow string works well if needed

 

[Henarar]

always leave a good tree when laying a hedge or trimming, like to leave an ash as they struggle more in competition and don't produce bloody acorns, there are plenty of oaks around here, not to many in a length of hedge though and bigger trees want a proper trim up every now and then or they kill out the hedge underneath

 

[Jameshenry]

Driving out today to get my old truck MOT'd I couldn't help but notice the mad rush to GET-THE-HEDGES-DONE before the deadline.
Machinery out everywhere.
Now there's been some grant aided hedge planting in spots which is great to see but I was saddened to see the pretty poor attitude taken by some of the supposed hedge trimming experts. Now I've only ever operated one hedge trimmer & consider myself a non-expert but I do have a top-of-the-range-hedgetrimmer & sling mechanism which allows me to do 'more' than most.
One run of three year old planting has tall guards every 20 metres & in these are 'standards' which are trees that will eventually, if allowed, become those land-mark items that the countryside needs. This has been doing quite well considering the lack of maintenance/input (probably as it didn't cost in real terms)
Today however I noticed ALL the young stock had been trimmed down to the flail height, even the 'standards'. This was a shock and saddened me mainly because I & thousands of others paid for these to be planted. In time they would have benefitted the area & the farmer too.
Now is this normal behaviour or is it just that no-one cares?
These standards can, with careful pruning be trained to grow up into proper hedgerow trees & reach their full potential but will anyone give-a-sh1t or consider doing this job? Resulting in another drab bit of hedgerow that no-one cares about.
Rant over
SS

Yes sadly very few trimmer guys give any thought to saplings ( well not around here anyway) each to there own, but i hate to see hedges trimmed back to nothing each year ,

 

[Kevtherev]

Leave a few trees in hedgerows is ok I think but they can be a pain to trim around.
Especially if they aren’t boughed in future so you can get under them.

 

[Henarar]

Leave a few trees in hedgerows is ok I think but they can be a pain to trim around.
Especially if they aren’t boughed in future so you can get under them.

they are not to bad if they are in the middle of the hedge so you can dodge round without hardly stopping but the stupid things some leave on the edge of the hedge and leaning outwards are a right PITA

 

[milkloss]

Trying to get mine done at the minute but struggling in the wet. It’s drying now but there’s some hedges will need a chainsaw through the bottom as now they’ve got the window so tight it’s never dry enough to get to them.

When you’re ‘speed cutting’, which I now have to do, nothing is particularly safe around here although I do have respect for the old trees and make sure no damage occurs. I have one or two oaks I’m giving a chance to bolt but I don’t think they’ll make much of a tree.

Can anyone give advice about how to encourage a tree to bolt out of a hedge if it’s had the top nipped off a time or two? Had to cut a 350 year old oak down last year as it was obviously a hedge tree that had been left and had started to split, would have left it if the cottage wasn’t in the way!

The other thing we have is when limbing up we get the odd oak that gushes foul smelling liquid. Everyone gets excited and wants to cut it down but I just say that it’ll see their lifetime out most likely so why rush. What’s wrong with these trees?

 

[suffolksmallholder]

Ah, here's one word of advice for those who are planting lovely new hedgerows right now. Beautifully spiral-guarded & bamboo staked they will be too no doubt.
To the sprayer operator/farmer. Please remember to reset your outer tramline in by at least 18" (460mm) else your boom will knock EVERYTHING over! The current tramlines were entered into the GPS before the outer perimeter of the planted section was put in. There must be some way to do this easily but if not all the guards & stakes will be knocked for six!
SS

 

[Henarar]

Ah, here's one word of advice for those who are planting lovely new hedgerows right now. Beautifully spiral-guarded & bamboo staked they will be too no doubt.
To the sprayer operator/farmer. Please remember to reset your outer tramline in by at least 18" (460mm) else your boom will knock EVERYTHING over! The current tramlines were entered into the GPS before the outer perimeter of the planted section was put in. There must be some way to do this easily but if not all the guards & stakes will be knocked for six!
SS

they could just learn to drive

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Trees thanks to dear old dad

 

[suffolksmallholder]

Tidy! Like
SS

 

[Derrick Hughes]

for my bit i try to plant 500 m or so of hedge a year . its not that expesive as things are

 

[suffolksmallholder]

Trying to get mine done at the minute but struggling in the wet. It’s drying now but there’s some hedges will need a chainsaw through the bottom as now they’ve got the window so tight it’s never dry enough to get to them.

When you’re ‘speed cutting’, which I now have to do, nothing is particularly safe around here although I do have respect for the old trees and make sure no damage occurs. I have one or two oaks I’m giving a chance to bolt but I don’t think they’ll make much of a tree.

Can anyone give advice about how to encourage a tree to bolt out of a hedge if it’s had the top nipped off a time or two? Had to cut a 350 year old oak down last year as it was obviously a hedge tree that had been left and had started to split, would have left it if the cottage wasn’t in the way!

The other thing we have is when limbing up we get the odd oak that gushes foul smelling liquid. Everyone gets excited and wants to cut it down but I just say that it’ll see their lifetime out most likely so why rush. What’s wrong with these trees?

Careful formative pruning will eventually result in the young tree or even an older spacimen to rise up above the others, then don't muller it!
Hollow pockets where water can lay will catch water, past squirrel/ damage may cause this, the tree heals over but the inner cambium rots & probably doesn't smell good when rotting?
The best way to make a space for a future major tree involves quite a lot of work. Cutting & grubbing out the root system of the existing hedge 1.2m in width, Digging a nice hole, filling this with soil, sand & well rotted manure. Plant a fine specimen with good provenance. Water in the dry for at least three years on, but not too much as you want the root system to go downwards. When this is well established, re-plant the gap with hawthorn & holly. Sorted. When you are old you can remember the job with relish as you zoom by on your electric trolley!!!
SS

 

[rob1]

After dutch elm we had dozens of new elms that I allowed to grow up they took a lot of time to cut round and they got to around thirty/forty feet high and then almost all died off, still got one or two that seem to be still going, if only one does it will be a start to them returning.got a fair few oaks that have self seeded and a fair few ash that are looking good, a few seconds taken to trim round are well worth the year round pleasure at looking at them