Dead and dying hedgrow holly.

[Woodworks]

Do holly trees have a short life? I have recently been working on a near by farms hedges and almost all the larger holly trees are looking the worse for ware. It is exactly the same with them on our farm. Small growth looks fine but once they get larger they seem to die. Looked at the growth rings of a couple and they where around 50 years old.

[easy-lift guy]

Looks like nature got the better of them. With all the reports of rain, could the trees be a victim of wet feet?.

easy-lift guy

[Peasgood]

Looks like summat has chewed all the bark off in it's recent past.

Not many trees like that to happen.

[nepia]

Not only in Devon Beau: I've noticed many mature hollies struggling, though not dying, in the last coupe of years. Typically I've seen lower canopies dying off - the small, thin, hanging growth. But recently there seems to have been some new growth emanating from the main stems.

[Woodworks]

Ted.

Don't think it is the rain. I have noticed the trees struggling for some years and sadly very wet winters are not a rare thing up here on Dartmoor.

 

Peasgood.

Chewing of the bark is quite possible. Is holly bark especially tasty to stock? The ash and hazel on the same hedges are fine. The banks in the picture are terrible and will not have been stock proof I would guess for 10 years or so. I will look to see if I can find some hedges that I know have been stock proof for many years and see if I can find the same problems.

 

Nepia.

Interesting to hear you have noticed similar problems elsewhere.

[hedgesparrow]

have a old holly similar size and thats fine. looks like the deer have been chewing on it or stock and ring barked it. if thats the case and the photos do look like thats happended then it will struggle to gets its nutriants up it.

you say its a hedge and these are in it one way to help them out is lay them down so the sap can run along and give new growth from the sides. make cracking hedges. just make a longish pleach and finish off with a good side axe so pleach is thick.

[Woodworks]

have a old holly similar size and thats fine. looks like the deer have been chewing on it or stock and ring barked it. if thats the case and the photos do look like thats happended then it will struggle to gets its nutriants up it.

you say its a hedge and these are in it one way to help them out is lay them down so the sap can run along and give new growth from the sides. make cracking hedges. just make a longish pleach and finish off with a good side axe so pleach is thick.

 

Don't have remit to lay this hedge but if any of this decay has started they have proved very brittle and invariably break when laying on other hedges. They are not ring barked only damage on the east side.