Pics

{{gwi:328182}}

{{gwi:328183}}

{{gwi:328184}}

{{gwi:328185}}

Almost certainly root-bound, this is very common.

Plants with woody roots often need corrective root pruning before transplanting

Here is a link that might be useful: The Myth of Fragile Roots

If they are root bound how come in the summer they never lean over???

because the soil gets liquefied from the excess water in winter????

e.g. .. my sand.. in august.. is like concrete ...

in spring.. at thaw .... if i step onto the sand.. no grass ... i can sink to my ankle ...

bboy is saying that the trees were grown in a pot to long.. and the roots are going round and round.. instead of out into the soil ... they are basically NOT anchoring themselves into the soil ... just living in the hole you dug ...

did you amend the planting hole...

you are going to have to go out there.. and dig up the smallest one.. snap a few pix for us.. and root prune it... so it can start to grab hold ...

also.. this is common on larger transplants ...

you might need some stakes also ...

it would also have been better had you diversified a bit .... if some should fail ... you can move some of the stock you have.. and interplant other types of conifers... to avoid future loss, should a leyland plague roll thru ..

good luck

ken

Read that Leylands can have a weakness for blow-over if over-watered. The root ball will not likely catch up, particularly if circling (root-bound). Might try restaking and then in summer watering about 5-6 ft away from trunk in an attempt to force them to grow roots further away from trunk. In no case ever water closer than 4 ft. This worked for me once with a Winged Elm.
If that doesn't work, I'd cut them down and plant something else there.

Thanks Ken.

I understand about root bound plants. These were one gallon leylands and when I planted them I made sure to tease the roots out. Now I am sure some of them are root bound to some extent but how are we to explain the stunted growth on all the trees on the left hand side if not for soil conditions / excess water???

I'll dig up a small one and try to get some pics.

Ken hates maples, I hate Leylands, tho not to such an extent... ;o)

Nonetheless, for me these pix are not helping as there is not enough info contained in them to troubleshoot. The second to last one may show some settling, and if there was a lot of compost thrown in the hole before planting, that is a problem - the roots are not spreading wide and the compost is settling, and the root spread is inadequate to counteract the force of the wind on the canopy.

That's what it looks like from here with the info provided.

Dan

not enough info to understand why some are bigger than others ...

all from the same supplier...???

if planted in spring.. one set could actually be a year older than the other ...

if you did not bare root .... there could be an issue of more fert in some pots.. but how you got all those in one line is a mystery ... lol ..

some soil variation ...

the one i always fall back to ... indian burial ground.. but for some reason.. in a straight row.. lol ...

if they are east/west ... shading could be an issue ...

i dont know ...

how about every single fact you can add.. so we have something to speculate on ...

were these bigboxstore???? if so, you cant even conclude they all came from the same grower ....

one thing.. if you had gone smaller .... they would have been cheaper.. easier to plant.. faster to get established ... and grab hold ... and most likely ... given the problems you are having.. outgrown the larger in 5 years .... but i suppose that doesnt help .... unless you are thinking about another side of your property ...

you need one 2x 2 stake ... on the upwind side to anchor those plants for a year or two ....

ken

ps:.. so thats winter in z8 huh????? it was 2 F this morning.. with a nice breeze .... in adrian mi

Ken I am glad you are getting a kick out of this!! Just kidding.

All the leylands were purchased from Home Depot...I know dont crucify me for purchasing from a big box store lol!!

I know there were all the same size when I planted them. I know ants like to make nests at the base of the trunk during the winter though people on this forum swear that ant beds do not effect the root system of a leyland cypress.

I say too much water!!!!! Wet feet are no good for leyland and since the water table is up in the winter, the ground is too soft.

The taper of the one shown in close-up is quite like that of a root-bound specimen. There were no knotted roots right at the base of any of these? Spreading the outer roots will not correct this.

Here root-bound nursery stock is pandemic, even 300 dollar tubbed camellias trucked up from California invariably come with crap root systems that make them nearly hopeless in my view. This includes turniplike bulges of knotted roots sticking up out of the potting soil at the base of the trunk, in full view. I have had decades old foundation shrubs fall over in wet snow, to reveal their condition when dug up - a dense knot of roots at the base, with a comparatively small number of others having escaped* and grown out into the soil - not enough to keep the plant upright throughout its life.

*Roots do not continue circling after planting out, circling roots found when a faltering specimen is exhumed are left from when the plant was in a pot; all root tips able to escape the orientation of the of the older, hardened into place sections will point away from the center of the plant and grow out into the soil

I would replace them with something more tolerant of wet soil, like Eastern Red Cedar or Atlantic White Cedar. You can get these fairly cheap through forestry services. Magnolias would also work (I assume you desire screening?). All of those Leylands will eventually get infested with mites and be a huge headache.

From the long-shot pix, I'm not 100% sure the soil is waterlogged all the time. I'm still sticking with the 'too much compost and settling' bit, and I can be convinced the settling is 'planted too deeply' instead.

But implicit in the diagnosis is the issue that Al TH brings up and the reason why I don't like Leylands: they are buggy and pest-ridden and short-lived in many places, esp in warm-summer regions. So even if we were to identify the issue, this doesn't help their overall unfitness as a tree in that place.

Dan