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Gardening in Canada

Newly planted cedar hedges dying/turning yellow

6 years ago

Hi Folks,

Need your help.... I purchased 65 black emerald cedars from Homedepot, here in Montreal, in early June. Out of 65 cedars that I planted, 15 of them show signs of death/ turning yellow, as you can see in the pics below.

Note: Hedges are from evergreen propagators limited in BC: http://www.evergreenpropagators.com/

I believe I planted them all correctly - dug a trench 12-15 inch deep and 15-18 inch's wide. I planted my cedars 20 inch's apart from each other. I used Vigoro triple mix garden soil for the base of the trench and planted my hedges straight out of the pot. I used soil mixed with sheep manure to settle the hedges in place. Once I had all the hedges planted and in place, I watered them well and used Vigoro fertiliser for shrubs, and placed the fertiliser spikes at every3 feet along my trench as directed.

I continued to water my hedge for 3 weeks and onwards after I planted them and then used cedar mulch to cover the base of my hedge - keeping the soil nice and moist.

Fast forward to today - 15 cedar hedges look like they're done living, under the mulch the ground is moist and there is no animals or dogs that have been in my yard. I also verified if there was any bugs or insects that can be causing the issue and I see none. Can anyone give me any recommendations as to what I can do to revive these hedges? Is this normal? Should I be worried?

Thank you,

Jeremy

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Comments (2)

Ontario_Canada5a_USDA4b
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Replace the dead trees, 15 dead out of 65 planted is not great, but not the worst either. The soil may be too rich for conifers, try ordinary native soil for the replacement trees, don't disturb the other trees that have taken. Moreover, don't fertilize new transplants, it would have the undesired effect of stimulating the growth of foliage, whereas they should instead grow the roots they lost when they were dug up. Note that these large transplants have to continue their lives with as little as 5% of their roots. Good luck!
ianna
6 years ago
too rich, grounds too compact so drainage is affected, transplant shock, inconsistent watering, etc.. so many reasons why they can die. You shouldn't have fertilized them this early - nor should you in summer. They don't need that yet and could suffer from root burns a result of too much nitrogen, The sheep's manure would have been sufficient in providing slow release of nitrogen.
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thats interior browning.. its NORMAL ... and its increased due to the stresses of transplant ... it does not help it was a HUGE transplant... and the black mulch does the stress no favor either ... based on what i see today.. in this.. pic.. there is nothing to worry about ... it will all fall off by itself... i dont know what you mean by damaged.. if branches cracked.. prune them off ... right now.. you can tell.. what are the live part... when those start losing regular color.. is when you start to worry ... you water a conifer/tree... WHEN IT NEED WATER... no when can tell you when ... you water deeply.. and then let it NEARLY dry ... take a hand trowel .... and dig a 3 to 6 inch hole.. and find out.. how YOUR SOIL reacts to the water ... we never want standing water ... once the root mass that was planted is dampened... you dont really need to water all that much.. as the soil will rarely dry.. below a few inches.. and that is why i want to to dig small holes and find out ... 2.5 hours a week of water... sounds like a lot... even on my glacial sand ... but again.. only you can find out ... ken
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