Feed for new hedge

I’ve just planted a new hedge of English Yew with bare root plants. They have been planted quite close to a large tree and the soil is quite rooty and tends to be on the dry side. I will mulch soon, but do you have any recommendations for eco-friendly fertiliser that will help the hedge get established? It needs to be something that I can buy in the UK.

I feel like this hedge will need some TLC until it has established itself.

Thanks!

Best I can tell is you want the soil loamy, moist and well drained.  Much of this can be accomplished by planting some type of deep rooting, preferably nitrogen fixing companion plant that will add organic matter to the soil.

Maybe you could sow red clover and buckwheat in strips near the row?  These would both add deep roots, especially the buckwheat.  The buckwheat is an annual and could simply be mowed back to prevent re-seed.  The clover would be there for good unless it would be starved of light.  If red clover sounds like too much, white clover could substitute as it is a low growing variety.

These are just a couple ideas.  Maybe someone can come up with a better one.

Eric

When someone mentions fertilizer, I like to recommend compost tea:

https://permies.com/t/80/63914/Soil#1018964
https://permies.com/t/67972/personal-quest-super-soil
https://permies.com/t/93606/Measures-effective-soil-building
https://permies.com/t/76498/biology-soil

Dr. Bryant Redhawk's Soil Series:

https://permies.com/wiki/redhawk-soil

Anne is absolutely right about the compost tea.  I guess I should have mentioned the obvious option which is mulch.  Lots of mulch.  Done properly, a good mulch layer will get its own actively growing set of microbes which will feed/fertilize the ground beneath.

Eric

Thanks, all. I'll have a read of the links and sort something out :)

I agree with all the above compost tea mulch etc. Did you put in some mycorrhizal fungi when you planted it? If not there is a product called Q4 you can add after which although not adding at the time of planting is better than not at all.

Go get your self some liquid seaweed personally I find maxicrop the best though vitax is good too and probably made in the same place. Make sure you water it regularly with that during this first season especially so if it end up being a dry one. Yew is resistant to almost all conditions and issues once established but it can die in its first season if you don't water it properly.

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The best feed to make yew grow along with the seaweed to help it establish is bat guano. It's certainly not the cheapest feed but it really gets it growing and I have established quite a few yew hedges for people by now. I used the brand below establishing some yews the last few years and nothing has made it grow faster than that:

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