Yews. Irish yews. And the lawn.

9 years ago

Hello people,

two years back I drove a few hundred kilometers to get my irish yews. Took me 11 hours to plant them all. I love those trees!

So, my first question is related to their watering and associated diseases, like root rot or fungi. They are aligned in a will-be huge screening hedge and one side of them will not be watered (close to the fence) while the other is a narrow strip of not even 1 meter of lawn. Thing is I now want to irrigate that lawn strip. Is it OK for the bark to get wet all the time from sprinklers ? Or even the foliage at the bottom of the tree ? Nursery owner I brought them from says it is not OK (generally speaking, I did not talk with him about irrigations). More over, this website - http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/hortcult/treeshru/probyew.htm - talks about "wet feet", bad for yew roots.

Second question: I am not going to prune the yews anytime soon because I want the hedge to grow quite hugely at around 4 meters+. So I left them grow freely. But, they seem to have this growth pattern where new shoots will just unbalance the tree. So I gently tied a thin rope around the trees to hold those new shoots together until they thicken a bit. Also, one of the trees (Actually two of them) started leaning over quite heavily so I tied them very firmly to a concrete pole in order to straighten them up. All seemed fine to me until I have come across that same website which says:

"A tag attached to a branch with a wire may prove to be a real problem in years to come. If the tag is allowed to remain on the plant, the wire may girdle or constrict the branch after several years. Large sections of plants have been lost in this manner. Therefore, when plants are bought, all tags should be removed from each specimen."

Uhm... should I release all trees from the (thin) ropes ? If so, how do I straighten the leaning specimens ?

Thanks!

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Comments (4)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
9 years ago
where are you .. it really matters.. if we are going to talk disease potential ... bug city name .. and zone ....

how about some pix

why werent they planted straight ... why not reset them ... so you can get rid of the string??? ... under dig from one side.. and pull them straight ... might want to do that in fall though.. there is no reason a transplant should need to be roped.. after the first year ...

if you want a hedge... why do you have grass in it.. that requires lawn watering ...

why do you need to irrigate established trees... something isnt making sense in your description ...

conifers are trees... they need watering for about two years .. to get established.. and once established.. they should not need any further water.. ever ....

how about a pic or two ????

and again.. where are you???

i doubt you will ever forget what they are.. get rid of the tags ... hang one in the garage.... just in case ...

ken
kelogs
Original Author
9 years ago
whoaaa, easy man! :)

I am in south-east Europe, hardiness zone 6 judging from this site's maps (can't set it to the profile, asks for valid address no matter what i type in). However, summers can get extreme over here. Temps at 35+ degrees Celsius (95+ F) are usual for about 10 - 15 days during the hot season.

Forgot to mention my drainage is pretty decent.

Well, they were planted 2 years ago, initially they were straight :)...
So I might want to try that digging from the other side trick. Although I fear that might be just as unhealthy as a full transplant.

And I had no idea about the two year rule for evergreens. Nursery keeper did not say that, he said like, two times a week in the first few weeks, weekly in the first year and then at two weeks. And i must admit the guy was not just a middle man, he ran his own nursery with his family.

About the tags - no i don't have tags attached to them, just those strings to hold hem together / hold them up straight as described. Which might be worse than some tags. Don't know ...

Pic attached,

thanks!
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gardens1
9 years ago
Hard to tell when looking sideways ;) but I think they are leaning due to wanting more light. I don't know the direction the photo is facing, but there is the building on the left blocking much of the light, then the fence on the right blocking more, followed by the tree overhanging the fence. Your tie ropes should not harm provided they are not tight, allowing the tree/shrub to move in wind, etc. However, I question the value of tying them straight if steps are not taken to correct them striving for light. I do realize that they are tolerant of shaded conditions, but my own opinion is that they will continue to lean towards the light until they are above the height of the fence and the overhanging tree.
kelogs
Original Author
9 years ago
thanks gardens1,

however that cant really be the case. For starters, the only light they get is coming straight from overt their tops, and only two of them (close to one another) are leaning, and they are leaning... towards the big house :)
But one of them is tightly roped, so, I'll take that into account!