- Methods to multiply a beech hedge yourself
- sow beeches
- How to get cuttings
- Propagation by sinkers
- Buy plants for the beech hedge or multiply them yourself?
A beautiful, dense beech hedge is the dream of many a gardener. The price alone for the young trees makes many shy away from it. If you have a little time and patience, you can simply propagate your beech hedge yourself. It may take longer, but it will be your pride later on.
The seeds for propagating the beech hedge should come from an older tree
Methods to multiply a beech hedge yourself
To propagate a beech hedge yourself, you have several options to choose from:
- sowing
- cuttings
- lowering
For all methods you need healthy beeches, from which you can collect seeds or cut cuttings.
sow beeches
Collect beechnuts in autumn from a free-standing beech tree that is at least 30 years old.
Before sowing, the seeds must go through a cold phase in order to overcome the germination inhibition. To do this, put them in the fridge for a few weeks and sow them in small pots in the spring.
How to get cuttings
Cut cuttings in late summer. Choose semi-lignified shoots that you can plant either in small pots of garden soil or directly in the ground.
Use sticks. These are cuttings with the tip cut off. Be sure to insert the cuttings right side into the soil.
Propagation by sinkers
To lower, bend a shoot that is not too lignified to the ground. Score it several times with a knife and cover it with soil. However, this form of propagation does not work as well as breeding by cuttings.
Buy plants for the beech hedge or multiply them yourself?
For those in a hurry, it certainly makes more sense to buy the beech trees for a hedge, and to buy larger plants so that the beech hedge quickly becomes dense.
Propagating beeches yourself is time-consuming. It takes a few years longer to create an opaque, taller hedge. However, it often turns out that self-grown beech hedges are more robust and grow faster.
tips
Plants for beech hedges can be purchased from your local nursery. Cheaper, but often of inferior quality and without advice, there are young beeches in the mail order business. Here you have to reckon with the fact that not all trees will grow and that you will have to buy some later.