Help - Over Grown Yew Hedge

[Justin Wright]

How hard can I cut back on a Yew Hedge? Looking at the Bible I'm semi- sure that I can do one side a season but would like confirmation.

 

To give an indication, its 8ft across and 14ft tall and stretches the best part of a 100m.

 

Customer wants it back to the furthest point that will not kill it (and therefore I won't lose the rest of the contract).

 

Many thanks,

 

Justin

[armchairarborist]

back to the stems should do it, would do one side at a time though, stems should sprout back pretty soon..

[Rupe]

Possibly a bit late now, late winter would be best. Be brave and cut it, and advise the client that it will take around 10years to recover.

 

The trouble with cutting one side then the other is that the good side might continue growing and the cut side might not bother. To prevent this I would cut the best sunny side first, so its keen to put that growth back on asap. or just be brave and do it all, but in late winter.

 

General rule of thumb with Yews, be brave and then patient!!!!!!!!

 

Another trick for this year, would be to cut huge holes in the greenery on the sunniest sides or all round and let the light in for whole season. Then once you get some new shoots appearing inside then you can cut it back hard as planned in the winter.

 

Whatever you do, tell them it will take ten years! Then you can keep the rest of the contract for that time at least!

 

If they are that big then the original owner who had them planted obviously had a vision for the future, unfortunatly people don't have that very often anymore. I have just cut some Irish yews back to tall stumps, with a ten year plan to re establish them.

[Hogs Breath]

Winter or very late autumn dependshow much they want off it overall you willl find it hard to kill:001_smile:

Sunny side first!

[common lime]

You can sell the clippings for Taxol

 

Limehurst Limited - Yew Harvesters

 

Or if you do go mad at least yew will come back from brown wood, in the end:sneaky2:

[rapidlee]

darn. i just did some irish yew and had 2 loads of chippin from it.

[stoxs]

I was always told to cut yew in the summer as if you get a frost after cutting you can damage the regrowth!

[Rupe]

Your all getting your selves confused...

 

You TRIM yews in summer. Cutting them hard back is a winter thing, and frost wont matter cos there aint any re growth yet! .

 

You can sell clippings for taxol (common lime is right) but not chippings. They only take the trimmings of annually trimmed yews, its only the new growth that is any good. Not the cuttings form a cutting back job. This thread is not about trimming yew hedges.

[david wood]

Yew trees are quite hardy things, couple of photos below to show how hard we have done them with a perfect recovery. Definetly would do sunny side first, leave it 3-5 years at least then do the other side to allow for max regrowth on sunny side first.

[Gareth Dalzell]

We've wacked yew back from 12ft to 2ft and it grow back just as well. When I was a pre-entry student in the Botanic gardens we chopped some very old yew down hard - and slowly (very slowly) you'll see the breaks appearing and it regrows. But it takes years not months to fill out again!

(PS keep any decent logs - it's excellent burning timber, very hot like coal)