Hornbeam in trouble?

[dudload]

Hi!

 

Brand new here and set up an account because a couple of newly planted (1.5 months ago) hornbeams in our garden seem to be in trouble.

 

When initially planted, both trees sent out lots of new growth and seemed really healthy, but in the last week or so, old growth has started to turn yellow and eventually drop. The new growth is still nice and green.

 

I've been watering the trees once every two days as it's been quite warm here (London) since we planted.

 

Is this anything to worry about, or just a bit of delayed stress from initial planting coming out? (It was 30degrees the week of planting)

 

Thanks in advance for any help

[peds]

Would you have a photo from further away, showing the bigger picture?

 

To me it just looks like the old growth towards the middle is being selectively pruned by the tree itself because it isn't getting as much light... because the new growth is blocking it. Trees aren't thick, and they know that they don't have unlimited resources, so if they've got leaves that aren't contributing to the flow of energy, they'll just snip them off after leeching out whatever nutrients they can and distributing them elsewhere - into the new growth.

 

If you are keeping it watered, and the tree itself seems healthy overall, I wouldn't be too concerned. But as always: top up the food, consider mulching, keep it moist. A handful of chicken manure pellets with seaweed followed by a scattering of bark or woodchip can never hurt a newly-planted tree, unless you've already OD'd it with nutrients in the planting hole.

 

I like this kind of thing for top dressing,  and usually less is more, little and often...

 

 

But let's see a zoomed-out picture too, and you should definitely wait for a second opinion. 

[dudload]

Thanks for taking the time to reply - much appreciated.

 

Fertiliser wasn't overdone at all when planted, we had gardeners in redeveloping the whole garden. They dug the holes the day the trees arrived and told me they put into the ground with no soil improver. The ground here is quite heavy (not full clay) with some rubble in, so after I dug around the football around 5cm deep, loosened it up and added some John innes 3 to loosen it up a bit. Have been sure to water every couple of days initially then now every 3 days or so to avoid overwatering.

 

Some splits in the bark did appear during the initial time, but looks to have healed (photo attached)

 

Wider shots attached as requested!

[peds]

Yeah, just looks like old leaves being shaded out in my opinion, but I'm as interested as you in hearing a second opinion 🙂

 

Great looking privacy screen you've got going there anyway.

[dudload]

Ok, thanks!

 

If it helps, here's a closeup of new growth and close up in the tree 

[sime42]

Not sure on the original question, (though it's probably not something to worry about at this stage), but I read an interesting fact about Hornbeam yesterday. It's actually more closely related to Birch and Hazel, rather than Beech. I always assumed the latter as the leaves and bark are so similar.

 

 

[nepia]

The hornbeam genus Carpinus is indeed in the birch family, Betulaceae