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Western Red Cedar - brown branches and tips - getting enough water?

JLodgeJLodge Posts: 26
in Problem solving
I planted this hedge in January, root balls, the plants were 1m to 1.25m, they were watered every day for the first 2 months and then every other day since then unless it significantly rained up until the hose pipe ban. They've mostly done really well, some are almost as tall as me (about 1.86m).

They all had the root grow powder added and then bone meal once and have been mulched with woodchip. It looks like now they have gone dormant as bits of new growth are getting darker. I have also added a drip hose along the base, underneath the mulch which is connected to my 1000L of water butts.

When we had the heat waves I watered them every evening but a few plants still got brown tips which seem to have worsened over time. Also many of the plants have dead branches further down, the worst of which is shown here in the pic.

Since the hose pipe ban we've had fairly regular rain and I've been watering them using the water butts/drip hose, but I'm starting to wonder whether that is enough? The holes on the drip hose are 30cm apart, but the hedge plants are 45 - 50cm apart, so I wonder whether the plants that are inevitably in-between the drip holes are getting enough.

I got a letter from our water company at the start of the hose pipe ban to say that we are exempt as we are on a priority list. I don't see how having two young kids exempts you from using a hose pipe, I guess that a priority list is a one size fits all and the hose pipe use is more for elderly people? Anyway, I have respected the ban thus far, but having spent so much money and effort on this hedge, I'm not prepared to throw all of that away.


Posts

  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited October 2022
    Sounds like you have watered it adequately. Even evergreens shed old leaves from time to time.

    Here's a pic of my mature Thuja plicata "Atrovirens" today.  The dying scales show up more in the sun.


     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • JLodgeJLodge Posts: 26
    bédé said:
    Sounds like you have watered it adequately. Even evergreens shed old leaves from time to time.

    Here's a pic of my mature Thuja plicata "Atrovirens* today.
    Thank you, that is what I feared, how often and how much water would you recommend?
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited October 2022
    Where are you? In Surrey, I would not water agaim until late spring 2023.

    Regarding frequency and amount of water.  That depends ... soil, rain ,sun, wind.    But I would certainly continue next year.

    Darker tips will be just seasonally slower growth .  But decide how high you want them, and be strict.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • JLodgeJLodge Posts: 26
    South Yorkshire, no water at all until then? The overflow from my water butts feeds into the drip hose so they'll get some that way as well as what rains on them directly.

    Sorry I mis-read your post as *in*adequately.
  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    They look pretty good for newly planted thuja, l would trim off the brown sections though.
    Thuja will regenerate and fill in any gaps, although it may take a little time.

  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited October 2022
    JLodge said:
    South Yorkshire, no water at all until then? The overflow from my water butts feeds into the drip hose so they'll get some that way as well as what rains on them directly.
    If the soil is clay, then just rain might be too much.  That plus the drip hose might be excessive.  Local condtions are inportant.

    Plants can have too much water.

    To comment on AnniD's advice.  I would say if the  brown sections are a whole branch, then trim them off to let more daylight in.  If they are just the trunk end of a branch, and with green extremities, then let it fall off naturally.  It's dificult to tell from the pics.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • JLodgeJLodge Posts: 26
    Thank you both, it's all well drained sandy land around here, so I'm not too worried about them being water logged.
  • LunarSeaLunarSea Posts: 1,923
    @JLodge ours are the same, both mature plants (30+ years) and ones I put in in 2019. I was really worried about it last year when it happened but they greened up and the new ones put on a foot of growth this year. We're on clay soil. 
    Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. 

    I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
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