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Portugese Laurel hedge

kerrimcmkerrimcm Posts: 8
in Problem solving
Hi everyone 👋 my newly planted (planted in april) portuguese laurel hedge is starting to get wrinkly leaves. It's not on every hedge, just some. Does anyone know what could be causing it? 
Thank you

Posts

  • CeresCeres Posts: 2,698
    Are there any scale insects or aphids on the leaves?
  • kerrimcmkerrimcm Posts: 8
    Hi @Ceres. Not that I can see, I have been looking for insects etc because it looks like a lot of the leaves have been 'ate' too. 
  • CeresCeres Posts: 2,698
    Are the plants getting enough water? I don't know where you are in the UK but some areas have been suffering from a lack of rain and a newly planted hedge will need a lot of water to get established.
  • kerrimcmkerrimcm Posts: 8
    I had added photos to that previous reply but they haven't showed up 🙈 I'm in N. Ireland, we haven't had rain in over 3 weeks so I've been giving the hedge a proper soaking every 2-3 days. 
  • CeresCeres Posts: 2,698
    That looks like shot hole. https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/portuguese-laurel-hedge/ There's a brief description of it near the bottom under "Pests and Diseases".
    No need to panic though. I think every disease going has taken up residence in my garden and there are new ones every day. And I have that very disease on an unrelated variety of laurel. I think with the extremes of weather that we have been having, everything with spores is having a field day.

  • kerrimcmkerrimcm Posts: 8
    Thank you so much for this information. That's exactly what it looks like they have. The wrinkled leaves could be down to the extreme heat too!? 
  • CeresCeres Posts: 2,698
    The wrinkled leaves could remain a mystery though extreme heat can do weird things such as gently frying leaves and leaving them crispy. I have a small houseplant (potentially large tree) in the ficus family that has developed a wrinkly leaf and it seems to be down to a lack of water at a crucial developmental stage. Whether this phenomenon affects members of the prunus family, I know not. If it doesn't affect many leaves then it's probably nothing to worry about.
  • PlantmindedPlantminded Posts: 3,580
    I think you’re right @Ceres, it’s shot hole.  Two of my Portuguese laurels were infected with it for over two years.  After several attempts to eradicate it with a systemic fungicide without success, I resorted to cutting the trunks down to about 18 inches tall last year. When the leaves eventually returned, they started to crinkle again which I suspect is a symptom of the shot hole still being present.  I blame my shallow sandy soil which doesn’t hold enough moisture to sustain these plants, despite seasonal additions of organic matter.  I now use Griselinia for hedging which copes well in free draining sandy soil.
    Wirral. Sandy, free draining soil.


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