This shocking photo shows the awful state of the box hedging in our kitchen garden. We only put it in ten years ago and very handsome it looked too, but now it has succumbed to box blight and we are in the middle of the heart breaking and back breaking job of digging it all out. Of the several hundred plants only about three dozen are unaffected, and these we have potted up in the hope we can save them. Box blight is said to be incurable, but I was given a ray of hope today in a chance conversation with Margaret Robinson of The Mammoth Onion. She said that she had been faced with a similar problem with some box hedging which had been planted by her grandfather many years before- she took the very radical step of cutting the plants off at the base and the plants grew back healthily after a couple of years. She had been given the idea after seeing a lavender grower on Jersey cutting his plants to the base and when she queried whether he was being too brutal was told that that was the best way to encourage fresh growth. This advice has come too late for most of our hedging, but we are going to try it out on the rest.
Tags: Gardening, Yewbarrow House
In Holland, we treated the box hedgings who suffered of a beginning box blight (Cylindrocladium buxicola) with Pireco, a biological crop care (www.pireco.eu), with good results. Now I remain giving this product as a preventative, which makes the plants stronger and less vulnerable.It seems to work quit well. I add the liquid solution on the soil (whole year around, to avoid activity of the mycelium) and spray the leaves as well, each four weeks during growing season.
Further on it is necessary to remove alle fallen leaves and the suface of the ground; important to prune as less as possible, to water only on the ground and to desinfect prunning materials. Regards, Christine van Zijl, Garden Designer.
We have a similar problem at Drummond Castle Perthshire, parts of the box parterre are affected by blight. However it is Volutella buxicola which is not fatal to the plant but has identical symptoms. We have been pruning out dead and dying parts and have seen regrowth in Approx 90% of area.The harsh winters we have experienced for last 2 years have resulted in ‘winter damage’ and this seems to be weakening the plant allowing the fungus to get hold in spring/summer. To aid the recovery we did not clip last year to give the plants a rest but fed the surrounding areas with growmore and sprayed the plants with carbedazim and foliars fetiliser. It is of major concern but the signs of recovery are encouraging. Regards Peter Randlo Head Gardener.