Dead and Dying Yew Hedges and Trees
Posted on 
July 23rd, 2008 by 
julian
English Yew has a reputation for being indestructible, and given fair treatment, there are yew trees planted today that will still be alive when mankind (if we survive) will have escaped the solar system.
At the same time, and like any living organism, english yew can die prematurely, but because it is tough you may be able to save your tree or hedge with swift action. Here are a few reasons why yew dies when it should not.
Dogs and Cats kill Yew Trees and Hedging
Well sort of. Actually it is what comes out of the back end of dogs and cats that kills younger yew trees and hedging. Cats like to excavate holes in pretty much the same place and carefully bury their excrement. It is a bit like topdressing with raw lion dung. Not a good idea and, from the tree’s perspective, slow poisoning.
Dogs are worse, in that where one dog pees, others are sure to follow. And then the first one comes back to mark their marks marking his mark, and then they return…. and yews do not like uric acid on either their roots or leaves.
Yew dies by drowning
English Yew grows just about anywhere - there is a lovely yew hedge by the river Wylie that is flooded whenever it rains. But then the ground drains. The moral of the story is that you can plant a yew hedge in any kind of soil as long as the roots do not sit in water for extended periods of time. Dig a trench in solid clay and fill it with lovely compost and top soil and you have created a death trap for your hedge. The clay does not drain and the trench will fill with water and stay that way. So if you are planting on poorly draining soil either ensure there is drainage, or DO NOT PLANT IN A TRENCH. Clear the ground, and plant bare-rooted stock in slits which you close up firmly when you have finished. There is an excellent planting video on our site which shows the technique.
Salt
The salt that is spread on roads whenever there is a hysterical reaction to the possibility of freezing conditions is bad for all plants. Full stop. If your hedge is in a place where thawing ice, snow or just rain will run off, then think about a wall or fence. Most plants hate salt. If your hedge will not suffer from run off, but gets splashed, go out the day after the thaw and wash it with a hose until it has been in the ground for at least 12 months. Given our climate you probably will not have to do this at all.
Root Rot
Root rot is caused by a number of organisms most notably Phytopthora. Some form of pythopthora exists in all soils ( a bit like cold germs in tube trains…). Just because it is there does not mean your yew plants will die, like most diseases it needs the right conditions to cause damage. It is always best therefore to improve the soil with organic matter to help drainage and to encourage new root growth. Expensive plants like yew are also helped if you use a mychorrizal additive - it is not cheap but the benefits are considerable.
Honey fungus
As with phytopthora there are a number of forms of Honey Fungus, not all of which are dangerous to plants. However the ones that are kill any tree or woody plant whose defences they penetrate. Yew included although the number of reported deaths of yew cause by honey fungus is very few as it is extremely resistant. Honey fungus travels underground and attacks trees and hedge plants through their root systems. If you cleanly trim off any broken bits of root with secateurs before planting, and if you improve the soil with organic matter, you reduce the chance of a honey fungus attack.
Watch your hedging grow, and enjoy
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July 31st, 2008 at 12:09 am
[...] presents Dead and Dying Yew Trees and Hedges posted at Ashridge Trees, saying, “Yew (taxus) hedging sometimes causes trouble in the summer [...]
September 15th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
I have over 60 dying Yew tree down to poor drainage and water logging after a particularly bad summer of rain in SE Ireland… I could cry looking at the brown and dying trees! Anyway, my husband and I spend the weekend taking them up and re-planting in a raised bed to try and save them from dying completely. Most of them are very brown, my question is should I cut back the brown and dead leaves or leave them to get established (hopefully) in their new home?? Any help would be very helpful as we are at a loss what to do with them for the best. Just out of interest I am planning on planting an Alder hedge this time around - likes wet and water logged soil I hear!?
September 15th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Hi Liz,
Thanks for your query.
Yew first (no pun intended). They are either dead already, in which case there is not much to be done, or they are just poorly. You must work on the assumption they are poorly. Give them a foliar feed, which will boost the plants. By all means cut the really brown stuff off - yew regrows from old wood, so it won’t hurt. And be patient - even if you think they are all dead, wait at least until the spring. Yew is incredibly tough and can come back from the edge of the grave. You have done the right thing geting them out of the water - they hate it. Now let time take its course.
As for the Alder. They will grow in very wet ground as long as it drains occasionally. However Common and Grey Alder in particular are susceptible to root rot (Phytopthera). If any of your yew had mushy black roots when you lifted them, I woudl be inclined either to plant Italian Alder, or to use willows to be on the safe side.
Hope this helps -
Good luck
Julian
September 16th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Julian, Thank you for the comments, it gives me some hope as the trees were so beautiful to begin with. The ground is very wet but does drain eventually, climate changes here has meant that it is extremely more soggy than normal. The Yew for the most part still held the size and shape of the pots they came from when I pulled them up -with the exception of the very evidently dead ones which had practically no root left. So maybe they will survive. I will look at alternative alder - thanks again for the advice. Liz
September 16th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Liz, I hope there was something there that helps. Foliar feed is a miracle worker with almost all hedging that is in trouble.
If the yew roots still were pot shaped, it either means that they were pot-bound when you got them, or the planting holes were not prepared as well as they could have been. All pot grown yew hedging likes large holes (a little deeper than but twice as wide as the pot) with good soil containing plenty of well rotted organic matter returned around the roots. The roots themselves are pretty tough and can be teased away from the root ball a bit to encourage them to grow into the surrounding soil faster.
Let us know how you get on.
Best
Julian
September 20th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
An alarming number of plants in a yew hedge planted this spring are turning brown and look as if they might be dieing. It could be that they are waterlogged after the recent very wet weather. But they are also planted under a walnut tree. I understand that walnut trees can give off a chemical that prevents some plants growing underneath them Could this be the problem for my yew hedge.
September 20th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
If the walnut is a Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) then very possibly. It would not touch an established yew, but newly planted hedging is another matter.
If you are not sure if your walnut is black walnut or not, then English and Black walnut are easily distinguished by looking at their leaflets. Black walnut leaves have between fifteen and twenty three leaflets, whereas English walnut has between 5 and nine. English walnut leaflets are much larger and oval, while black walnut leaflets are slimmer and smaller and have serrated edges.
There is not much point in moving the yew at this stage. It is an incredibly tough plant and it may be brown for other reasons (and totally brown yew can still recover). The wet weather (if you are on heavy/clay soil may also have something to do with it. Give them a foliar feed and leave them alone.
Good luck
Julian
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Julian,
I am trying to find a reason for a young yew hedge suffering from individual plants bronzing and whole branches dying. Hedge is 4 years old, from cell grown plants. Each year a plant will go brown and the branch is clearly dead. Trimming off the dead branches leaves a stump but some life remains and the plant looks like it may come back.
I live in North Scotland and the hedge is on a south facing slope on a clay soil. I also lost a specimin conifer to the same problem last year.
Thought I had got away with it this year but noticed one of the larger plants now a dark brown colour. We do have dogs but problem seems to affect whole branches rather than the whole plant.
Any thoughts?
Regards Alf
September 24th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Hi Alf
Yew hedging bronzes or goes brown because the yew plants in it are stressed (physically rather than mentally). From what you describe, if I had to pick one cause, it would be root rot. It sounds as if you are on clay, which drains badly and we have had a succession of wet winters and/or summers. Being cell grown plants I guess you planted your yew in holes or a trench, and either would have spent a good part of the last four years full of water. (For future reference, you may find it better to plant bare root hedging plants). They are cheaper, establish better and can be slit planted so there is no hole to fill with water and drown the roots. The is a film on our main website on How to Plant a Country Hedge which shows the technique you should use.
I hate to say this, but if you dig up one of the affected yew plants in late October, you will almost certainly it has some see soft, black rather smelly roots. If so, you might think about
- giving your yew hedge a foliar feed now to try give it a boost,
- digging up the whole hedge & trimming the diseased roots off (and burning them)
- trying to improve the drainage by digging a relief drain so water flows down the hill
- replanting and mulching heavily.
Yew is a wonderfully resilient hedging plant and your existing plants can recover if they are given a little help (and if it is not too late). But it must be worth a try.
Hope this helps, and good luck
Julian
November 9th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Interested to know your readers comments. We live in Somerset and blest with three Yew trees one of which is over 300 years old. We have a problem with the youngest of the three which is approximately 40 to 50 years old. It is on well drained ground. The problem has arisen this year. The West facing side of the tree, the foliage is turning brown and showing signs of soft canker. The other sides of the tree appear to be unaffected.I have taken cuttings and shaken them to see if there are any avids and pleased to note there are none, only a few tiny insects, light coloured which could be spiders or similar.Is there any action that I can take or should I just leave it until spring next year to see if the problem persists. Any advice or help would be appreciated.It is to be noted that a neighbour has lost a well established fir tree to avids attack together with part of his fir tree hedgerow. Its odd that only part of the hedge has been attacked. Is this down to the sex of the fir being either male or female and that one is resistant to attack and vice versa.
January 19th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
I have many very old Yew Trees in my garden, the 1 we wanted to make a feature of our new drive way so dug the drive way round the tree (like a roundabout with the tree in the middle). Looks beautiful. Only now its been about 9 -10 months all the leaves are turning brown. I will be mortified if we have killed the tree. What can I do?…. The other yew trees are lovely & green.
January 20th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Thanks for your question. Without a photo (email me on julian-at-ashridgetrees.co.uk) it is very hard to tell. However, here goes.
All english yew (be they grown as trees or yew hedging) can go bronze. The weather we have just had - very cold with windchill can do it. However if the other yew trees in your garden are OK that is unlikely unless the one in question is more exposed than the rest.
Yew can also bronze when it is stressed. This is most noticeable with new english yew hedge plants while they are trying to establish (especially in heavy ground).
In both cases, the plants almost always recover and green up again.
A possible cause of stress with your yew may be the trench. Possible reasons might be:
1. It has caused too much root to be removed, or
2. It has acted as a drainage ditch and the “roundabout” in the middle is very dry.
Yew is tap-rooted and so will not depend entirely on its surface roots, but to minimise the risk I would suggest filling the trench in.
Sorry….
January 26th, 2009 at 9:52 am
Great thread - thanks julian. It has answered a whole bunch of questions i have had about my yew hedge. I was panicking as it was going bronze, but I can already see new green growth coming through. Phew
March 4th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Hi Julian, liz here again. I asked about my dying yew at the top of this thread. My question today is to do with the cutting I took from the healthy trees (before they began dying!). I have about 60 cuttings in pots covered with plastic in the greenhouse over the winter. They still are moist and look a beautiful green colour so hopefully have rooted… but what do I do next? Do I leave them in the greenhouse covered for the spring and/or summer? Do I uncover them and leave them out - have no idea! They are about 2-3″ above soil level and are closely planted in their pots. Can you help with the next stage so that I might recover some of my trees for the future. THanks LIz
March 5th, 2009 at 12:22 am
Hi Liz
Well done. You will be supplying us with yew hedge plants before you know it!
Here is a quick guide:
1. You will know if your taxus baccata (fastigiata?) have rooted when you either see fresh growth on them or roots show at the bottom of the pot. Don’t do anything until you are sure they have really rooted.
2. Then take the plastic off but leave them in the house. Assuming you have more than one cutting per pot, transplant them into pots of their own about 4 weeks after you took the plastic off.
3. Gradually harden yew hedge plants off in the greenhouse. Open windows increasingly during the day, then leave them open all night and finally move them outside in late May/early June.
4. Then I would be inclinded to try an experiment with a couple. In November, take them out of their pots and knock the compost OFF their roots. Do not prepare the ground where they are to be planted, instead just clear off any weeds and slit plant them as you would a countryhedge. Take a look at our film on our home page if you don’t know how. If they survive and grow away, you know how to plant your next yew hedge…..
Good luck, and send a photo.
3. Take the plastic off
March 6th, 2009 at 8:42 am
Hi Julian, Thank you again for the great advice and for your time. I checked the cuttings yesterday and to my surprise they have not rooted yet. They are a beautiful green colour so I was amazed - still learning here! I will keep them under wraps for another while and wait for things to warm up a bit. I will keep you posted. Thank you very much. Liz
March 30th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Hi Julian,
Very interesting reading, and this fills me with some hope.
I too have a yew hedge planted in heavy clay soil.
I imporved the soil as best I could prior to planting and planted some of the trees on a ridge to prevent their roots sitting in water in the worst ares. Others are in level ground.
the first year they were lovely they greened up aftre the initial shock of being moved and stayed nice and green for the summer.
They grew well and I was very happy.
After this winter, I am now faced with bronzed foliage and some trees looking like they are duying, ie yellowing and blackened needles.
You mention foliar feeding to help this problem.
what do you recommend I feed them with and is there anything else I could do to help?
My soil is alkaline and I believe they prefer acidic conditions, is it worth me trying to lower the ph with leaf mould or peat?
Thanks in advance
Tina
April 7th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Thanks for the really great thread on here. I’ve got a very windy, SW-facing hilltop site (300′ amsl) and planted my bare-root stock in January, just after the very cold spell. Many have been bronze since then, but several are worse now. But this is limited to the larger branches - most have new growth valiantly erupting now it’s early April. Out of 45 planted and kept very well-watered since, I’d say one straggly-looking example, and the very smallest one sent, are probably lost for good. I’m not too unhappy with that.
Any info. to share on Yew in windy places? Always ready to learn!
John. (Anglesey)
April 17th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Julian,
I would be grateful for your advice about maintenance of a new yew hedge. I had 40 sturdy rootball plants put in last November. A few look yellower but I think they are all basically OK. They are about 100cms tall. Should I trim the tops to help them thicken at the base? if so , when? Should I feed them? if so with what and when?
April 19th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Hi Elizabeth,
Yew grows less vigorously when the terminal bud of its leading stem is cut, so I recommend leaving the tops alone until the plants have reached your desired height - use your judgement with the side branches, bearing in mind that you want to keep the base a little wider than the top of the hedge. They should not need feeding, although an organic foliar feed (that you spray onto the leaves) certainly can’t hurt - use it in the morning or evening of a cloudy day.
The yellowing is totally normal for establishing yew.
April 20th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Edward, thank you, just what I needed, what a brilliant site this is.
May 5th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
I am hoping someone can help me sort out a problem with my yew tree which must be well over 50 years old.
The tree is in my front garden, approx 25 feet high and only about 10 feet from a busy road.
I noticed last year a lot of brown needles had fallen.
Also, I usually have a lot of drive cleaning to do after the berries have fallen, but last winter there didn’t seem that many berries to deal with.
Today, there are a few small branches that look dead and I see a lot of the needles have yellow tips and some are brown.
This tree is very dear to me and I’m very keen to help it along.
If it would help, photos can be provided.
May 5th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
We have planted a yew hedge on a fairly exposed site with good drainage (which was put in). Several of the yews have yellowing needles towards their trunks. They appear to be no more exposed (in fact are sheltered) than their neighbours; and were all planted at the same time. The tips of the branches are green; the branches and trunk appear to be healthy. Any advice appreciated. They were planted a month or so ago.
May 6th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Hi Pat
Sorry for the delay, but we have been on holiday.
make sure they are no allowed to dry out, and leave them alone. Newly planted yew all over the UK has struggled this year. On past experience they may end up looking worse before they get better, but unless they are waterlogged - and it does not sound like it - they well recover and grow away in time.
Good luck
Julian
May 6th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Hi Steve
Difficult to say from the information you have given. A photo would be helpful - can you email one to me at julianREM@ashridgetrees.co.uk (remove the letters in capitals in the email address before sending).
However here are a couple of thoughts.
1. It may be that the tap root has hit something it does not like (London clay for example). If this is the case there is little that can be done.
2. The tree is diseased - honey fungus is the most likely. Take off a bit of bark at soil level - if there is a white filigree underneath, then it is. Nothing to be done.
3. You say the road is nearby. There was a lot of salting of roads done last winter and this - yew hates salt water.
4. The ground it is growing in may be “tired”. A really good mulch with well-rotted compost or manure on the ground under the tips of the branches will give it a boost.
In any event, remove any dead yew branches as that will allow you to see if it is getting worse or not.
Good luck
Julian
May 7th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Julian,
Thanks for your reponse.
I’ve emailed a couple of photos of my yew tree to you.
Steve
May 20th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Julian,
throughtout this thread, you mention helping with discoloured/stressed trees with foliar feeding.
What would you reccommend to use as a feed and any tips?
thanks
Tina
May 21st, 2009 at 12:42 am
Hi Tina,
There are a range of foliar feeds on the market (as a quick google search will reveal) and they all do much the same thing - they have pretty much the same nutrients that you would find in normal plant food.
There is no reason that you can’t just make your own - get some really well rotted, extra rich compost and or manure (perhaps add a pinch of something like Growmore), leave it for a couple of days in some rainwater and spray the resulting “tea” liberally over your plants - twice a week should be plenty.
Alternatively, we received a tip that if you mix the compost with carbonated water, the CO2 gas that makes it fizzy both helps the leaves absorb the nutrients and boosts the rate of photosynthesis. This does sound entirely possible, though we have never carried out scientific tests!
It is important to make sure that the pH is either neutral or only slightly acidic - between pH 7 (neutral) and pH 5.5 (roughly that of rainwater) testing kits are cheap and easy to use. Only use foliar feeds on cloudy days, ideally in the morning. If it doesn’t rain after several applications, you may want to wash off any mucky residue with a hose in the evening or early morning (i.e. when the sun isn’t shining on the leaves) - this will give the added benefit of reducing moisture loss through the leaves.
Good luck!
June 13th, 2009 at 11:58 am
hi
my yew tree i bought 6 months ago was a little bronze in colour, and not the dark green i was hoping for ,it has new growth but again this is light in colour can i do anything to improve this ?
June 15th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Hi Phil,
I’m happy to report that it sounds like you have a healthy tree that is establishing nicely. The bronze colour was due to the stress of being transplanted and the young, light green foliage will darken over the course of the year, becoming deep green by winter. This pattern of pale young leaves becoming dark green will repeat itself every year.
You can sit back and relax with this one!