Did you keep them well watered while they established? I have a 12 year old 10' hedge of podocarpus on the side of my house. For the first year after planting they were watered very regularly any time the soil showed signs of drying out and they took right off. They've survived off just rain water after that. They've never shown any signs of stress or disease.

Yes, I have taken pretty good care of them. my old style Florida neighborhood is full of huge podocarpus hedges--and trees--that seem to get along great with no help at all. Which is why I chose them as hedge material--and which is why this is so frustrating

Maybe the location is poor draining and thus conducive to fungal disease? The only attention I give mine since their establishment is hacking off the top once a year in November and the sides a couple of times a year ( they would grow into the walkway otherwise). That's all the attention they get. I imagine if the soil where mine grow stood moist for much of the year that they would succumb to fungal root disease. The soil where mine are situated stays dry for much of the year except during the portion of the rainy season when they are actively producing lots of new growth and so they actually need and make use of that moisture.

No, I am on top of a sandhill. Nothing could be more well drained. And the fungus causing the problem occurs in dry soils too.

Here's a pic of a podocarpus (not mine) from the ifas page, suffering from mushroom root rot.

Hi Bill

I miss you and your postings!

Here is my little experience with podocarpus. It was just planted before we moved to the house, in two places. One to hide the air conditioner and the other one outside the gate where we have a fence. The one by the ac quickly became infected with what you described and we took it out and left one single one there and is okay, not pretty.:)

The other one outside the gate is okay and no signs of disease, both were treated equally. Personally, I don't think I like them as a hedge.

Silvia

I love my podocarpus as a hedge. It's been so care free, drought tolerant, very formal looking, always dense, and always a deep shade of green. I'm very surprised to hear it can succumb to fungal disease on a sand hill.

My hedge self sowed twice elsewhere in the yard. Unfortunately I was unable to successfully transplant the saplings as their roots were really long it seemed.

Thanks to you all!

Miss you all, too, Silvia. Sorry I've been such a slacker... Thank you for telling me about your experience with this shrub. I'm not CRAZY about podocarpuses either. My feelings are somewhere between neutral and uncertain. I planted them because they seemed a sure route to a privacy hedge, but now .....

All know is that I want to create a large privacy screen of some kind that does not involve a fence. I'm considering a mixed border of large evergreen shrubs if I remove the podocarpus.

Scogebear, yes, I am presently doing what you did. I am watering them, mulching them, cutting out the dead branches (cleaning the the clippers with a bleach solution after each cut). Several of the shrubs I've cut down so much I suppose I ought to replace them--if I'm going to stick with the hedge. It is encouraging the you were able to work through the trouble period and make a nice hedge!

Florida_Joes, I was very surprised to learn about this problem too! I started out with dreams of a hedge like you're describing.

If I were using the pododcarpus just an ornamental, I wouldn't be worrying. But I am using them--trying to use them--as a living fence. So if this disease recurs or shows up in other shrubs later--I've got a "fence" with holes in it, and all the time I've waited for it to fill in will have gone to waste.

Lorapetulum makes a nice hedge.

If you want a mix perennial hedge I would dig up the ones that are sick or dying and plant ioxora, lorepetulum, etc and maybe some tall clumping grasses. The nice thing about a mixed planting is that a fungal infection probably won't wipe out your whole bed.

Oh and my neighbors planted Pitch Apples as a hedge and I planted Plumbago in front of it to provide color and a little privacy until the PA gets bigger. It's growing pretty quickly and is really attractive. I think it's going to make a great hedge

Thank you, suncoastflowers. Yes, I have something like that in mind. Lorepetalum would definitely be on the list. But I would have to avoid cold sensitive things because where I am--on the 9a border--we do get freezes and I want privacy all year. I'm thinking Bottlebrush, some juniper/cypress type shrubs, maybe even an oleander, arranged for texture contrasts.... That way when something has a problem and has to be removed it will not radically change an entire section of the garden.