The evergreen thuja hedges are quite easy to care for as long as they have enough nutrients. We show when, how and with what to fertilize your tree of life.
Thujen (Thuja), also known as trees of life, belong to the cypress family (Cupressaceae) like yews (Taxus). The conifers with the scaly leaves are robust, evergreen and quite undemanding. This makes them welcome guests in German gardens, where they provide year-round privacy as a hedge. But planted as a hedge, the roots quickly fight for the nutrients in the soil in the confined space. Sufficient fertilization is therefore extremely important. Otherwise only the strongest plants will prevail and unsightly gaps will appear in your green wall of leaves.
Thujen are very popular as hedge plants because they offer everything that makes a good botanical privacy screen. They quickly form opaque walls of leaves all year round and are wonderfully hardy here. At least they offer these benefits when they have an adapted selection of high-quality nutrients at their disposal. Otherwise, even the most robust Thuja cannot use its potential. So that your thuja hedge shines in rich green, it is important to know when a thuja needs to be fertilized, how often it is fertilized and which fertilizer is best suited.
The best time to fertilize Thuja
If you plant your thuja in rather poor, sandy soil or if you plant bare-root specimens, you should of course use proper plant fertilization. For this, the garden soil is mixed with compost. An additional load of rock powder not only provides important trace elements, but also lime. With container goods, on the other hand, plant fertilization is not necessary, since the soil in the pot already contains long-term fertilizer. After planting, fertilize for the first time four weeks at the earliest.
Your thuja should be fertilized between spring and mid-July. If you use a long-term fertiliser, a single fertilization in March/April is sufficient. After that it should only be fertilized with fertilizerthat contains very little to no nitrogen. Otherwise, shoot growth is promoted for too long. The new shoots then no longer have time to mature before the first frost and are defenseless against the icy winter temperatures. With a magnesium fertilizer, on the other hand, you should fertilize in July. Magnesium is important for the green leaf pigment, chlorophyll. In this way you support a year-round green and boost photosynthesis. The last fertilization of the year follows at the end of August. When fertilizing in the fall, the plants are provided with an extra portion of potassium. This helps to harden the shoots that have grown laboriously over the year. This means you can expect less frost damage in spring.
Thuja fertilize brown shoots?
Thumbs often turn brown to a greater or lesser extent before winter. The plant does this to prepare for frosty sub-zero temperatures. A brown color does not always have to be the harbinger of an incoming plant. However, the brown shoots can also be the result of insufficient nutrient availability, over-fertilization, road s alt, lack of water or sunburn. Therefore, fertilize your thuja with a mineral fertilizer if there is a lack of nutrients. This quickly supplies the plants with the nutrients that they lack. Magnesium is usually missing in this case. This is needed for the formation of the green color pigments. However, even with emergency fertilization, care should be taken to ensure the correct dosage. More is not always automatically better. Instead of initiating the plant's recovery, it only turns browner due to overfeeding.
Thuja fertilizer: How and with what to fertilize?
Special conifer fertilizer is particularly suitable for supplying your thuja. This is perfectly adapted to the requirements of these evergreen conifers. The fertilizer offers nitrogen, potassium, phosphate, lime, magnesium, iron and the trace elements copper, manganese, molybdenum and zinc. However, you can also use another universal fertilizer for green plants. Just make sure that you pay attention to an additional supply of the minerals and trace elements mentioned, especially in sandy soil. It is best to use a predominantly organic fertilizer. Due to its long-term effect, this only needs to be applied once a year. Our Plantura organic universal fertilizer offers this long-term effect, as it is mainly made from organic components in organic quality. This saves resourcesduring production, because mineral fertilizers have to be processed at great expense. But there are also advantages in terms of application:
- Soil life is promoted
- The risk of over-fertilization is minimized
- Less fertilizer gets into the groundwater through leaching
If the soil pH is below the comfort zone of 6 to 8, you should also apply lime.
Fertilize Thuja: Instructions
Of course it's not just about choosing the right fertilizer. The dosage and application should also be carefully considered. To ensure that fertilization is a complete success, we have prepared a few instructions for our Plantura organic universal fertilizer below:
- Before planting, work 100 - 150 g/m² (well filled 0.2 liter glass) of our Plantura organic universal fertilizer into the top layer of soil
- Water the soil and freshly planted thuja well so that the granules can dissolve easily
- For maintenance fertilization in spring, you should fertilize another 80 - 120 g/m² (0.2 liter glass) per plant
Please note in general that the fertilizer requirement for Thuja hedges is higher than for solitary plants, because the latter have more space in the root area. Planted close together, there is quick competition among the roots, but also with other surrounding plants, because thujas have a fairly weakly developed root system and are correspondingly weak in terms of competition. A slightly higher dose of fertilizer prevents such jealousy among your plants.
Thuja hedges fertilized with minerals
If the dosage is right, you can also supply your Thuja hedge with mineral fertilizer. Blaukorn is given once a year in spring with plenty of water. About 50 grams per square meter are applied here. In particular, the mostly contained magnesium is a plus for your thuja hedge. If you want to reduce the risk of over-fertilization and keep the availability of nutrients more balanced, it is best to spread the application of mineral fertilizer over the vegetation phase. Fertilize in small doses two to three times between spring and mid-June. But even better - since it is only used once a year and is much more environmentally friendly - is to use an organic fertilizer variant.
In autumn, fertilizing with a potassium fertilizer such as Patentkali ensures that the shoots that have formed over the yearHarden. Give about 40 grams per square meter at the end of August to prepare your thuja hedge for the frosty temperatures. The magnesium it contains provides additional strength for your evergreen shrub.
Fertilize Thuja hedges with Epsom s alt
Thujen provide opaque, green foliage all year round if they are properly cared for. This is beautiful to look at, but it also costs the plant more energy than if it simply shed its leaves. A lot of energy is needed to build chlorophyll. The leaf pigments not only provide the green color. They are also essential for a functioning photosynthesis. Plants need magnesium to build chlorophyll. It is therefore advisable to administer a magnesium fertilizer to evergreen plants such as thuja in summer, when photosynthesis is in full swing.
Epsom s alt offers the mineral variant to supply your thuja with this nutrient. The nitrogen-magnesium fertilizer ensures lush greenery and makes the plant as a whole more resistant to unfavorable weather conditions and diseases. Depending on the soil conditions and the magnesium already contained, about 15 to 30 grams per square meter are given. The poorer and lighter the soil, the more you should apply. Also, be aware that Epsom s alts lower the soil pH. If this falls below a value of 6, it can be increased again by giving Lime.