A section of hedge beneath a tree to the front of our garden has largely died off and has these white bits of a lot of it. I've pulled most of the dead section out as well as a part with some green on it still that had the white bits on it. Can you help identify what this is and how to avoid in future please? Thanks. I'm based in the UK
White spots/blotches of trunk of hedge
- Thread starter HokkaHokka
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Hiya from Kent, welcome to the forums.
I rather think you have a case of verticillium wilt there. If I'm right, it's a soil borne fungus, and needs to be removed and burnt. You need to be careful not to move any of the soil there around the roots, and take out any plants around this that may have been infected already. If this spreads it can infect other plants nearby.
Hope you can get it sorted.
I rather think you have a case of verticillium wilt there. If I'm right, it's a soil borne fungus, and needs to be removed and burnt. You need to be careful not to move any of the soil there around the roots, and take out any plants around this that may have been infected already. If this spreads it can infect other plants nearby.
Hope you can get it sorted.
Thank you so much for your help. It sounds like a bit it's going to be a pain. I assume and from what I've read so far that if I were to remove as deep as I can/ clear debris; that if I were to plant with new hedging plants that they would most likely also become infected? If you or anyone else has any experience with this or advice I would be really grateful. Thanks again for this
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If it feels stiff and plastic-y/rubbery it might be some kind of sealer someone used when it got cut back hard some time ago. If it's thinner and brittle, it is probably a decomposing fungus feeding on the dead stem tissue.
There is a little elasticity to it but may be just that it's wet. I've just noticed that the other end of the hedge also has it on and has dead appearing in it as well. The middle part seems unaffected so far. I'm really hoping I won't need to pull out the entire thing and replace with fencing as it's always full of birds. Thanks
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It looks as if the entire hedge is dying. There is no rush, I would wait until the birds have finished with nesting - should be easy to check as there aren't so many leaves. Watch for, and discourage pigeons though, they build their clumsy nests all year round.
If it was my place, I would consider removing the entire hedge, having a bonfire and replacing the hedge with a wall of some kind - even using second hand materials. It might be better than trying to grow something else in suspect soil.
If it was my place, I would consider removing the entire hedge, having a bonfire and replacing the hedge with a wall of some kind - even using second hand materials. It might be better than trying to grow something else in suspect soil.
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Do you know what the plant is? If not, can you post a close-up of the leaves so we can id it? That will help narrow the possibilities.
Hello, It's a hedge with a little holly in there as well (would really like to save the holly if possible). I've added photos. Does this help? Thank you
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Holly is resistant to verticillium, so you don't need to worry about that part of the hedge. The other one looks like it might be a privet ( Ligustrum) which is susceptible. You could remove the one and fill in with holly or something else resistant.
Thank you. That was what I was hoping might be the way forward, though shrubs see to be so damn expensive these days. Probably similar price to put low fence up! Holly definitely preferable though. Thank you very much for your help