Best instant hedging?

In looking for replacement hedge plants I'm balancing Plant size & Price against my Impatience to get a fully formed hedge.

There seem to be three routes: (prices / timescales based on Hornbeam / Beech)

1) Small plants, say 120-150cm, £18.00 per Metre, 5-7 years
2) Large plants, say, 180-200cm, £68.00 per Metre, 3-4 years
3) Instant Hedge-lengths, say, 180-200cm, £285.00 per Metre, 0 years

(1) The small plants are whips. I reckon they will be 5-7 years to make a "formed hedge"

(2) The large plants have been grown individually, trimmed to column shape (more or less) and can be planted to form a semi-mature hedge.

(3) The hedge-lengths I have only found from one company. They plant continuous hedges, about 2-3M apart in fields; I can't work out if the planting trenches are actually lined, I think they probably are - so root spread is contained. But the individual lengths are clearly not defined, so at every 2.5M length they chop through the roots when they are transplanted. I can't figure why they would not line those "ends" too.

The 2.5M lengths require some heavy lifting gear to plant too ...

I can't for the life of me work out why they would do (2). Much more land required to grow individual plants, more root disruption, and the resulting hedge isn't really "instant" - the sides aren't going to line up, and knit together, perfectly for a kick-off.

(3) seems staggeringly expensive to me !!

Why not just grow a continuous hedge in trenches lined with some sort of barrier in 1M lengths so that they will fit on standard pallets?

What's wrong with my maths here:

Buy 120-150cm plants at £18.00 per Metre (less if bought "bulk")

Dig some trenches, line them, plant them, feed and water them. In 5-7 years I will have a mature hedge worth, apparently, £285 per metre.

I reckon, at 2M spacing and allowing 1M for the width of the hedge itself, I can get 3,000 metre-run of hedge per hectare. Plants cost £54,000 (obviously less "wholesale"), hedge sells for £855,000. I need some water and some fertiliser, and the hedges will need cutting twice a year, although not much / at all when they are young.

I expect I'm missing something fundamental!

I think the "instant" hedges are planted in root control bags which are removed before delivery, so the ends are "defined". I'm guessing - I've not come across this product before - but root control bags are used extensively in tree nurseries, and the root systems that you can just about make out on the Practicality Brown website pictures (I assume that's where you're looking?) are just like the ones you see on trees that have been grown in such bags. As you say, staggeringly expensive, but no doubt aimed at the seriously rich and impatient market ( a niche which has perhaps shrunk somewhat in recent weeks?!). I'm guessing the production and handling costs are quite high tho' so maybe the margins are tighter than you imagine (but not too tight!).

Is this the 46 mt run you talked about a month or two ago ? If so, that'll give you a £10,000 premium for the instant version vs the 180cms plants option. How impatient are you ?

Replies

steve loftus October 24, 2008 at 7:11pm

have you tried hedgesdirect ,i just checked out the website and they seem to have quite a range of hedges to choose from,in different sizes,prices include delivery,orders over £350 get a discount.
they do not start bare root until Nov, til march.worth a look, just to get some ideas of the different types of plant you could use. hope this helps.
Nick Steele October 24, 2008 at 7:24pm

I think the "instant" hedges are planted in root control bags which are removed before delivery, so the ends are "defined". I'm guessing - I've not come across this product before - but root control bags are used extensively in tree nurseries, and the root systems that you can just about make out on the Practicality Brown website pictures (I assume that's where you're looking?) are just like the ones you see on trees that have been grown in such bags. As you say, staggeringly expensive, but no doubt aimed at the seriously rich and impatient market ( a niche which has perhaps shrunk somewhat in recent weeks?!). I'm guessing the production and handling costs are quite high tho' so maybe the margins are tighter than you imagine (but not too tight!).

Is this the 46 mt run you talked about a month or two ago ? If so, that'll give you a £10,000 premium for the instant version vs the 180cms plants option. How impatient are you ?