Establishment and early growth of different plant types of Corsican pine (Pinus nigra var. maritima) on four sites in Thetford Forest

Authors: Jinks R.; Kerr G.

Source: Forestry, Volume 72, Number 4, 1999 , pp. 293-304(12)

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Abstract:

The field performance of six different plant types of Corsican pine (Pinus nigra var. maritima (Ait.) Melville) was compared over the first 4 years after outplanting at four sites in Thetford Forest, East Anglia. The stock types differed in size, age and method of production and included conventional 1-year-old container seedlings raised in Japanese Paper Pots and Rigipots, 1½- and 2-year old seedlings raised in Japanese Paper Pots, as well as 2-year-old bare-root seedlings which either had or had not been undercut.

Survival was high (> 87 per cent) for all types except the non-undercut 2-year-old bare-root seedlings. Height and stem diameter growth were generally low during the first year after planting, but by the end of the second year there were significant differences between individual plant types and sites. Analysis of height increments in the second year suggested that the 1½-year-old container seedlings raised in paper pots had recovered from planting check, whereas other stock types had not. However, average increments were not great enough to allow these 1½-year-old seedlings to overtake 2-year-old seedlings which were taller at planting. All stock types had apparently recovered from check in the third and fourth years after planting and were tending to grow on the same growth curve at each site with shorter seedlings producing smaller height increments. Thus initial seedling size and site factors, rather than method of production, were the most important factors determining future growth with the height advantage of taller seedlings at planting being maintained or increased in subsequent years.

Language: English

Document Type: Original article

Affiliations: Forest Research, Alice Holt Lodge, Wrecclesham, Farnham, Surrey GU10 4LH, UK

Publication date: 1999-01-01

• Forestry publishes refereed papers on all aspects of research, practice and policy that promote the sustainable development of forests, woodlands and trees. In considering suitability for publication attention is given to both the originality of contributions and their practical application. Preference is usually given to work undertaken in the temperate and/or boreal zones; only articles of exceptional merit from tropical zones will also be considered.

• In this: publication
• By this: publisher
• In this Subject: Forestry
• By this author: Jinks R. ;  Kerr G.

Website © Publishing Technology. Article copyright remains with the publisher, society or author(s) as specified within the article.

• Terms and conditions
• Privacy policy
• Information for advertisers