New Hedge pruning advice

Idioteque

I've just planted a number of Laurel Novita in my front garden for a little more privacy from front passers by and at side from neighbour.

I'm a gardening novice so was looking for some guidence on pruning. I've read a few things online that say to prune a bit off the tops of each newly planted hedge in order to encourage growth. Also something around pruning other shoots at the sides.

Bascially I'd like the sides to fill out so am wondering should I prune both top and sides, if so by home much and where (1/4" above a node seems to be what I can make out from a bit of reading) and at a slight slant away from the bud.

Any advice appreiacted and anything else worth thinking about at this stage?

I've planted them ~60cm apart and they were in 10L pots ~100 - 130cm high

Thanks

ShiverinEskimo

I think hard enough pruning after planting is avisable in most cases to encourage shoot growth at the base. Cutting them back to half their height is recommended by some and then don't cut them again until summer 2020.

When cutting it next year aim for a cone-like shape so the light can reach the bottom branches at all times. This will help with density and low-down growth.

Lumen

I read not to prune the leader, i.e. leave the top to grow and cut any sprouty side bits to encourage thickening.

Any opinions on this?

macraignil

ShiverinEskimo wrote: »

I think hard enough pruning after planting is avisable in most cases to encourage shoot growth at the base. Cutting them back to half their height is recommended by some and then don't cut them again until summer 2020.

When cutting it next year aim for a cone-like shape so the light can reach the bottom branches at all times. This will help with density and low-down growth.

Lumen wrote: »

I read not to prune the leader, i.e. leave the top to grow and cut any sprouty side bits to encourage thickening.

Any opinions on this?

Read about both these methods being recommended and reckon both would probably work fine as hedge plants are usually very tough plants and would just adapt to whichever treatment was used. With the hedge I planted last year I decided not to cut them down severely at the start as I was unsure how often I would get out to clear the weeds starting between the hedge plants and reckoned cutting them down severely would put them at a disadvantage compared to the weed plants. The hedge is nearly 200metres long so weeding it takes a considerable amount of time. There was one hawthorn I chopped the head off by accident when clearing weeds early on and it did re-sprout with good strong growth from the base but it is still shorter than the other hedge plants that were not trimmed.



The severe cut down at the start would probably make sense if you need a denser hedge that will not allow small animals or pets to pass through but if you want some height and privacy more quickly only a small amount trimmed off the leader would make more sense in my opinion. Leaving the top of the hedge too wide is also to be avoided as it will shade the lower parts and may lead to gaps lower down. I would not worry too much about slanting the cut to slope away from a bud as this sounds like advice for pruning specimen trees and would not be necessary with hardy hedge plants.