How long to trim a privit hedge?

[32vld]

How long does it take to trim an 7' to 8' high privit hedge down to 5" that is 100' long and 2' wide at the top?

[Florida Gardener]

Is that a typo or are you really planning on taking a 7-8' hedge down to 5"?? I would highly recommend NOT doing that.

If you are taking it down to 5', that's a different story...

Is the privet hedge a ligustrum?? If so, I would use loppers as it has a lot of wood and you can figure that is going to take probably double the time to trim.

[topsites]

It depends on a lot of factors, what type of hedge it is one, how fast a worker you are two,
and then practice, how many times before have you done this, which if you're asking...

But ...

It ain't the trimming that eats time, it's the cleanup.

[Oakleaf landscape]

1.5 days should be a safe estimate lol...

[White Gardens]

Originally Posted by topsites

It depends on a lot of factors, what type of hedge it is one, how fast a worker you are two,
and then practice, how many times before have you done this, which if you're asking...

But ...

It ain't the trimming that eats time, it's the cleanup.

Clean-up is the easy part.

The hardest part is trimming correctly first. Is mechanical shears the way to go or is it better to hand prune.

I run into bushes and shrubs all the time that have been over-pruned with hedge trimmers. What you get is too much branching at the end of the shrubs causing too much density, thus not allowing proper air circulation through the hedges.

Going in by hand will allow you to make proper cuts and you can thin the bushes correctly to make them healthier over-all. Even if your client is looking for that "clean" sheared look, going in by hand first will allow you to open up the shrubs and clean out dead-wood. Then go in with the clippers to get that final look.

[Patriot Services]

If you are taking 3' off you are probably going to be in chainsaw territory. Then the power hedgers for final shape. One guy, maybe 3 hours if your not used to doing this type of thing. Holding equipment 5' up gets a little tiring on the forearms.
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[Think Green]

32vld,
I trimmed a privet hedge two weeks ago. The hedge was 90 feet long (property divider) 8' high and 5' thick. I took it down to 5' high. Total time for me trimming up along each linear side...taking off a couple of feet of outward growth, taking off the top as well was 4 hours.

I used a Stihl KM110R kombi with the:
HL-KM 135° Adjustable Hedge Trimmer
Has the added flexibility of being able to be adjusted to 270°
(135° working range).

After the raking, the loading debris and trip to the landfill, the job was completed in 5.5 hours.

[Think Green]

Be sure to acknowledge to the customer that the internal parts of the privet hedge will be brown, stumpy and ugly looking for a month at least. I always tell people this because if the hedge isn't kept up on a regular schedule the integrity and beauty of the cut is compromised.
Did I mention----------------I really loathe privet hedge as much as I loathe Bradford Pear trees.

[Florida Gardener]

Originally Posted by White Gardens

Clean-up is the easy part.

The hardest part is trimming correctly first. Is mechanical shears the way to go or is it better to hand prune.

I run into bushes and shrubs all the time that have been over-pruned with hedge trimmers. What you get is too much branching at the end of the shrubs causing too much density, thus not allowing proper air circulation through the hedges.

Going in by hand will allow you to make proper cuts and you can thin the bushes correctly to make them healthier over-all. Even if your client is looking for that "clean" sheared look, going in by hand first will allow you to open up the shrubs and clean out dead-wood. Then go in with the clippers to get that final look.

Great advice here.
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[Patriot Services]

Taking off a 1/3 of any bush is probably going to be woody.
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