Portuguese Laurel really struggling

doniepony

Hi all

I planted 130 Portuguese Laurel early last year and they seem to be really struggling this year.. In hindsight for my site they were not the greatest choice as it is very windy a lot of the time but I want to see can I get them going anyway as they are in the ground now. I think the biggest issue with them is wind burn.. I do have a wind shelter on my fence (see pics) but it does not go all the way to the ground I am going to drop it in the next few weeks to try to give it extra wind shelter as the wind sweeps under the wind shelter..

I have feed it with seaweed pellets recently and from the pics you can see I have weed fabric but down also (whether this was a good idea or not.. it would have been too big an area to be weeding). I also have a dripline to the plants under the weed fabric so I can give water when needed.

Could anyone give some advice about getting them to thrieve a bit better.. As i said I will drop the wind shelter to the ground but I am thinkning of putting another shether on the other side for a year or two to try to get them to thicken out..

Finally, from my research this seems to be a good time of the year to prune the Portuguese Laurel to get it to thicken out but I am almost afraid to do so as it is so thin,

Thanks in advance for any support you can give..

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looksee

Its hard to tell from the pics but while some of them are definitely struggling, some seem to have died. The one on the left in the first pic is gone I think. Scrape your thumbnail on the bark of the stem and see if under the bark looks greenish and live. What kind of soil is it? Were they bare root or potted? How much preparation did you give the ground, how much water? I know you said there is a drip feed under the membrane but how much was it on when they were newly planted? If bare root, did the roots dry out before planting? Unless the ground is actually wet with rain I would always put bare root plants in a bucket of water for half an hour before planting and then pour water into the hole as they are planted. If there is a delay between buying the plants (ie the time they are dug up) and planting, the roots should be temporarily buried in soil, or at very least wrapped in wet sacking or similar fabric, and planting should be as soon as possible. Don't leave them standing in water though.

cap.in.hand.

They look bad alright...they look aged and not young plants...maybe cut them near to ground level to encourage fresh new stems.

10-10-20

I have to agree with the two previous posters. I grew P. Laurel as a hedge against a wall which I planted last March. They were root-balled ~1m high and grew pretty well last year, but this year they are in overdrive mode with very strong growth all around. Most have now grown 50cm since planting.

Yours sorry to say, look very poor and I would wonder whether they were pot-bound when purchased? They do also look overly mature for their height, I think that the greyish bark only comes onto the branches after the second year, so that could imply that the whole plant was trimmed back very harshly in the year prior to shipping, or possibly was always exposed to harsh weather. Were they sourced locally or via a specialist provider?

I think that this year could be the tilting point for many of them, so quick action here in the early Summer is clearly needed. Can you double-up that wind-break to add more protection?

Wishing you luck.

10-10-20

I'll just point you to this comment which I noticed again today:

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/116980896#Comment_116980896