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canadian hemlock question

16 years ago

probably shouldn't have done this, but I bought an 8ft. hemlock 4 yrs ago ... knowing full well that it would take deligent pruning every year to keep it in bounds ... and it also probably gets more sun than it would like ...

I still love it and kinda enjoy nipping off the lime-green new growth ... but the tree overall just doesn't look healthy ... some of the needles are a nice, dark green color, but most are a *faded* green ...

I used holly-tone in the spring ... what about Miracid? ... I water it with regularity & the ground is mulched with shredded pine bark ...

any advice on *greening* it up? ... thanks, phyl

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Comments (6)

conifers
16 years ago
Yah, throw some (with a soil test preferably) pelleted Sulphur around the dripline. That might be your deficiency.

Dax
phyl345
Original Author
16 years ago
thanks dax ... don't even know what *pelleted sulphur* is; but i am sure i will be able to find some at my local garden center, won't i? ... thanks again, phyl
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pineresin
16 years ago
"throw some (with a soil test preferably) pelleted Sulphur around the dripline"

Just throw the sulphur, don't throw the soil test . . .

Sorry, couldn't resist ;-)
spruceman
16 years ago
You say: "I still love it and kinda enjoy nipping off the lime-green new growth ... but the tree overall just doesn't look healthy ... some of the needles are a nice, dark green color, but most are a *faded* green."

If you are nipping off the new growth as it forms, the foliage you have left is that with the older needles, and the older thay are the more faded they become. Could it be that you are pruning off too much of the new growth?

--Spruce
phyl345
Original Author
16 years ago
hmmm ... I see your point ... the reason i nip the new growth is to contain the size of the tree ...

before making the decision to install it, I did much reading about the pros & cons of a hemlock in my less-than-ideal situation ... one concern was keeping it from becoming huge ... all my info led me to believe nipping out the new growth would do that (yikes, what was I thinking! it takes for friggin-ever)... anyway, it does promote new growth along the branches ... over-all though, the tree just doesn't look happy ... what was I thinking ... what was I thinking ... phyl
spruceman
16 years ago
Perhaps you should use the trdaditional method of shearing. Hemlocks respons very well to annual shearing and they can be kept rather small or grown very large. My father had a hemlock "hedge" between his property and a neighbor that was about 25 feet high. Of course the shearing had to be done by a professional with a bucket truck. But hemlocks can be sheared so that their growth in size is very slow. I sheared some yews into globe shapes for many years. Every year I left about 1 or maybe two inches of the new growth so these things gradually got larger. I am not sure if you can shear hemlocks quite so close--maybe you can check with some sources of information about that and/or observe any that you might see that are sheared. You can experiment and see how much you can take off with each shearing so they still look good and healthy in your own eyes.

For a few years I used the old hand shears, but the electric ones do a better job.

Good luck,

--Spruce

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