Plant Doctor Archive

Crabapple 'Toms Fileck'

THE crabapple 'Toms Fileck' sounds perfect for a hedge I've had in mind for some time. I'd like a 10.5m hedge in gentle curve around a third of a small paved area. I'd like some advice on distance apart, style of pruning for a hedge, and whether pruning from the first season includes the time of planting.

I WAS not able to find any information on the variety 'Toms Fileck', so I'm not able to get exact dimensions, but here's an example. The plants need to overlap or grow into each other to make a hedge. If the plant is 2m wide, it will have a radius of 1m each side of the trunk. If you place the plants in the row, there would be a distance of 2m between them. Because you want overlapping to occur, you can space the plants 1.5-1.8m apart. As you trim and top the trees, this will make them spread in other directions and help to close the gaps. If you're planting this season, do a light prune to tidy up the plants. If they're past your desired height, prune to this now. Next year, prune back to allow new growth in the other directions. Prune the front and back of the trees to close up the gaps quicker. Don't prune the inside of the hedge.

Reproduced with permission from the former Weekend Gardener magazine. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the RNZIH.