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Please help - hedge dying & spreading

HfullwoodHfullwood Posts: 2
in Problem solving
Hello,

I have joined gardeners world for a little help if possible.

6 years ago when we bought our house we had a healthy privet hedge at the end of our garden and for the past 2 years it's been slowly dying. Over the width of the garden we still have 50% of it living but have recently noticed some white roots in our veggie patch (3m away) and are worried its the same thing and it's going to kill our vegetables.

I have attached some photos of the roots I have dug out of the veggie patch. The hedge doesn't have anything visible on the leaves or on the soil.

Do you have any ideas of what this could be? Some online forums suggest it's roof fungus and you have to remove the whole hedge and soil as no treatment works. 

Thank you in advance!

Hayley
 

Posts

  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    *Bump*
  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    We don't quite know why this happening, I've got the same as you and there have been several threads on here. The general consensus seems to be either honey fungus (which likes privet), the heat we had last year or just the old age of some of these hedges. I did try a year or so ago to tie the green branches from each side across the dead bits to try to disguise it, which took a long time and was only partly successful. If it is honey fungus, it would be no good removing the dead bush and planting a new privet.
     I'm afraid I don't know what the white roots are, I thought honey fungus had black roots. You might just have to dig the dead bush out, perhaps put a trellis panel in the gap and plant a different bush in the gap.
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    This is the RHS's take on honey fungus 
    https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=180
    I must agree, l thought the roots were black as opposed to white if the plant was infected with that.
  • HfullwoodHfullwood Posts: 2
    Thank you both, I think the white roots are a separate issue. They are 3m away so I doubt it's spreaded across the slabs. The fruits in the vegetable patch look healthy and according to some posts it's not harmful, I will keep an eye on it.

    Yeah I've read about honey fungus too, is there no way of treating it if it is? To stop it spreading to the rest? It's our boundary hedge and isn't owned by us but the neighbor is elderly and is really hard to communicate with. The hedge also spans multiple properties and some also have blocks of dead privet.

    Thanks again
    Hayley

  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    If it is honey fungus, it's a big job l'm afraid - more advice 

    Break the cycle and spread

    • Remove sources of infection. Remove as much of the infected root system, stem/trunk material and associated soil as possible. Do not compost this, dispose of it by landfill or burning. It is important to note that if trees are affected, cutting them down to stumps will not remove the source of infection as the fungus can gain nutrients from dead wood and roots for many years 
    • Consider surrounding plants. In a hedge, remove one healthy plant to either side of the infected area as well. Plants showing no signs of infection but whose roots would be in contact with those of visibly infected plants are likely to have infected roots 
    • Cultivate the soil. If any infected roots or rhizomorphs (aka bootlaces) are still present, the smaller the infectious pieces are the shorter the time the fungus is likely to survive. Make sure to chop them up when digging out the soil.
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