Hedge planting cut off date

[early riser]

I’ve got a considerable length of hedges to plant as part of a stewardship scheme, for various logistical reasons I’ve not been able to make a start yet.

I appreciate that late autumn/early winter is advocated as the best time to plant hedges, but will it be an issue carrying out the work in Jan/early Feb?

What are the risks to the new hedge plants of delaying into the new year? Risk of ground drying out too fast in spring before roots established??

thanks in advance

 

[Bury the Trash]

should be alright, its usually just that earlier the better is the natural settling/weathering in of the soil around them with regards to moisture retention sort of thing.
Get plenty of rain through late winter and hopefully enough through spring and no really extended low rainfall events through the first season will be the key to success as ever.
they are still dormant atm and for some time main thing when 'storing them / getting ready/ in the process to plant is that they arent alowed to' warm up' like have them out in the cool and with damp roots of course.

 

[Ukjay]

I was advised bare root and root ball between Nov and April, when we did ours.

 

[Redfish]

Jan/Feb will be fine. If you leave it to late the nurseries stop lifting bare root, usually some point in March?

 

[Ukjay]

We planted at the end of the season with mixed bare root plants, and yes we did not use plastic twist protective sleeves etc - good or bad decision, who knows..

The below photo was taken on 10th April 2017, and we had 90% success rate with the young stock , and I believe I may have affected the result by not keeping the roots wet enough until planting (in bags for a week), and the area under the big tree would have needed stronger root stock and more post planting watering (leason learnt).

We planted 1000 bare roots, and we didn't follow the spade wedge installation approach, we went slightly different due to end of season.

Next time I would not go beyond early March to try and increase take..

 

[ARW]

Feb is fine, we have planted in early March before things start to wake up

 

[Brisel]

I’ve got a considerable length of hedges to plant as part of a stewardship scheme, for various logistical reasons I’ve not been able to make a start yet.

I appreciate that late autumn/early winter is advocated as the best time to plant hedges, but will it be an issue carrying out the work in Jan/early Feb?

What are the risks to the new hedge plants of delaying into the new year? Risk of ground drying out too fast in spring before roots established??

thanks in advance

I've planted deep into April though the mortality rates go up much more that late & we had to water the plants well into May. Keep the roots moist in the bags. November to the end of Feb while the plants are dormant is ideal.

What is your deadline? Most CS agreements give you 2 years to plant but with a start date of 1st Jan, so if you're 2 years in now, you'll need to make sure your photo evidence is date stamped before that deadline.

 

[early riser]

I've planted deep into April though the mortality rates go up much more that late & we had to water the plants well into May. Keep the roots moist in the bags. November to the end of Feb while the plants are dormant is ideal.

What is your deadline? Most CS agreements give you 2 years to plant but with a start date of 1st Jan, so if you're 2 years in now, you'll need to make sure your photo evidence is date stamped before that deadline.

it’s the stand-alone Hedgerow and Boundaries Grant. We have two years to complete the works, and the agreement started in Aug this year. All the guidance says is that the planting should be carried out Nov/Dec. If it ends up being mid Jan when we get it planted we’ll just have to date everything accordingly....

 

[Treecreeper]

As said into March is ok, earlier the better of course. If they are in bags don't let them sweat and don't leave them dry out, keep outdoors in the shade. If you can't do this season for any reason line them out in a trench(heel in) they will be ok over yeared like this.

 

[Fruitbat]

As said into March is ok, earlier the better of course. If they are in bags don't let them sweat and don't leave them dry out, keep outdoors in the shade. If you can't do this season for any reason line them out in a trench(heel in) they will be ok over yeared like this.

Yep, plant them when the ground is right, not what the calendar says. No point planting them in waterlogged ground, you'll get too many losses and puddle the ground around them. I've planted late April before now.

 

[Forever Fendt]

we planted 600 quick thorn during the beast from the East in feb/march 18 into rubbish ground and surprisingly everyone took ,when I collected them they were the last they had left and in a cold store

 

[Ffermer Bach]

I am going to try to plant earlier this year, to give them a chance to "grow a few roots" over the winter, in case we get another drought in the spring, but having said that, anytime up to April is fine I think, just don't let the roots dry out when you are planting them. I think in the past I have also put a powder on the roots (was it mycorrhizal fungi ). I wonder if they would be cheaper to buy in the spring at the end of the season? I also don't use rabbit guards, as I think we should try to limit micro plastic pollution in the countryside (I get far more upset about microplastic pollution than I ever would about anyone cleaning out the river Lugg bank!)

 

[Ffermer Bach]

when I worked for Wyevale, we used to heel the bunches of whips in the ground to store them (or put them in the plunge we used to call it)

 

[Treecreeper]

Yep, plant them when the ground is right, not what the calendar says. No point planting them in waterlogged ground, you'll get too many losses and puddle the ground around them. I've planted late April before now.

You might get away with broadleaves into April as long as the buds haven't started to swell and break, a dry spring like last year does late planting no favours.

 

[Ormond]

I know a guy who manages large areas of woodland....he talks about keeping the young tree plants in fridge trailers when they get delayed planting because of wet weather

 

[Treecreeper]

I know a guy who manages large areas of woodland....he talks about keeping the young tree plants in fridge trailers when they get delayed planting because of wet weather

Yep, slows down development process, a form of vernalisation, the same principle is used by plant growers when getting show(chelsea etc) displays ready. It's best to have more than one batch for this because exact timing still relies on a degree of luck.

 

[som farmer]

we have 2 yrs time limit, but we didn't know till april, that we had been accepted ! So a phone call to be had. One thing we will be doing, is sticking in blackthorn cuttings, they are free, and a good hedge plant, for stock proof hedge, as we have lots to do, the saving will be a useful amount. Strange to think we were paid to remove the hedges, and now being paid to replace them.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

I have found that up in the hills, blackthorn does not really grow (at about 1000'), I have tried planting it for the sloes (for gin), but they either die or just don't get any bigger. I have tried planting golden chain cuttings but that has not really been a success either. I think the alder plants seem to have grown the best.

 

[dudders]

we have 2 yrs time limit, but we didn't know till april, that we had been accepted ! So a phone call to be had. One thing we will be doing, is sticking in blackthorn cuttings, they are free, and a good hedge plant, for stock proof hedge, as we have lots to do, the saving will be a useful amount. Strange to think we were paid to remove the hedges, and now being paid to replace them.

Blackthorn's a triffid. If it likes your soil, it spreads like nothing else, sending roots out just below the surface to poke up all over the place. It's a nightmare here and this summer I'll be spraying and then digging up loads of it. In places, it's got into the old mixed hedging and is crowding out the other plants. I rate it as one of my top weeds.

There's really no more need for the stockproof hedge. In ye olde days, if your stock got out, it was no big deal. Today, it can cause a 'major incident' on a road, so we all have to run a fence of some sort inside the hedge anyway, in which case any mix of plants is good.

I also don't plant hazel, as it grows straight up to the top of the hedge with no side growth except at the point where you cut it. At that point it develops a hefty crown, but those smooth stems leave a gappy hedge.

 

[som farmer]

we have chosen to replant hedges, for their windbreak effect, all will be in cutting fields, so spread isn't a problem. Used to lay a lot of hedges, health dictates no more, who will train the next generation ? Always like ash, that would lay a treat, and make a solid hedge, some ash here, been layed, grown up again, and layed again, one 'stump' went out 20/30 yards, each way !