Norway spruce bore an abundance of cones in Finland in 2000, but these cones were often fungalinfected. The seeds had structural injuries that were revealed when seed samples were examined using light (LM) and a field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM). Two main types of spores were found either in the tissues inside the seed coat or on the sarcotesta, the outermost layer of seed coat. The spores of Chrysomyxa pirolata appeared particularly in the nucellar tissue, where the cell walls were disintegrated at the middle lamellae and cytoplasm was disrupted. Degenerated remnants of fungal structures resembling aecial peridium were found close to aeciospores. The tissue of the megagametophyte differed also from that of a normal mature seed. Conidia of Thysanophora penicillioides were often encountered on the sarcotesta where the ordinary wax cover was missing. Fungal injury occurred in the nucellar layers that shelter the embryo and megagametophyte from desiccation and oxidation. Destruction of these structures together with rapid opening of the seed coat advance deterioration of seeds during storage and may cause unexpected economic losses in forest plant production.

No abstract

Improvement of seed quality by pretreatments is indispensable in current mechanized plant production. Pretreated seeds are usually sown immediately, but in some cases they also have to be stored. The aim of our work was to study the changes in germination indices of pretreated Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) seeds and the impact of the incubation temperature on germination after long-term storage. Pretreated and nontreated Scots pine seeds of three forest stands and a seed orchard were stored for about 10 years at the temperatures of 2°C and –18°C. The changes in germination indices were studied using germination tests and radiography. The germination indices of both pretreated and nontreated seeds were impaired during long-term storage. In general the changes were greater in cold than in frozen storage. Decline of the germination indices was more obvious in pretreated seed orchard than in forest stand seeds. The germination indices of forest stand seeds, whether pretreated or not, was preserved equally well in cold storage, while in orchard seeds germination indices prevailed better in nontreated seed batches. Forest stand seeds incubated at 10°C maintained their germination indices better than seeds incubated at 5°C, while in orchard seeds the effect was not as obvious.

Despite positive signals from increasing growing stock volumes and improved roundwood trade, first commercial thinnings (FCTs) tend to be a bottleneck in Finnish forest management and forestry. The reasons are many, but probably the most crucial would be the lack of simultaneous economic incentives for participating agents, i.e., private forest owners and forest machine contractors. This is due to poor stand characteristics in most FCT cases: low cutting removal with small average stem size. There are five predetermined management options: (1) Industrial wood thinning with only two timber assortments, pulpwood and saw logs, (2) Integrated procurement of industrial and energy wood, (3) Energy wood thinning solely consisting of delimbed stems, (4) Whole-tree energy wood thinning with an energy price of 3 € m−3 and (5) Whole-tree energy wood thinning with energy price of 8 € m−3, that were applied for six separate forest stands located in Northern Finland, and derived from a database representing stands with an urgent need for FCT. Then, a two-phase financial analysis consisting of stand-level optimization (private forest owners) and profitability assessment (contractor) was conducted in order to find out whether there would be simultaneous economic incentives for both participants of FCT. The stand-level optimization revealed the financially best management options for a private forest owner, and then, for a contractor, the profitability assessment exposed the profit (or loss) associated with the particular management option. In brief, our results demonstrated that conducting either an industrial wood thinning (1) or an integrated procurement (2) resulted in a positive economic incentive for both the private forest owner and the contractor in all six cases (stands). Further, applying energy wood thinning with delimbed stems (3) would even generate a financial loss for the contractor, given the roadside prices applied in this study

Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan miten luomumaidontuotantotiloilla on varauduttu neuvoston asetuksen (ETY) n:o 2092/91 mukaisiin tuotantoehtoihin: vuonna 2008 alkavaan 100 %:n luomurehuvaatimukseen sekä 2010 päättyvään siirtymäaikaan eläinten kiinnipidon osalta parsinavetoissa. Kyselytutkimuksen avulla pyrittiin selvittämään myös luomumaidontuottajien tulevaisuuden näkymiä.Tulokset osoittivat, että luomumaidontuotantotiloilla 100 %:n luomurehuvaatimus tulee olemaan haastava toteuttaa. Karkearehujen sekä energiarehujen riittävyys voidaan toteuttaa luomutuotannossa, mutta valkuaisrehujen, erityisesti rypsipuristeen osalta ei kotimainen tuotanto kata lypsykarjatilojen tarvetta.Tulevaisuuden kannalta tiloista 41 % aikoi jatkaa luomumaidontuotantoa entiseen malliin, 25 % tiloista suunnitteli siirtyvänsä tavanomaiseen tuotantoon sopimuskauden päättyessä ja 16 % tiloista aikoi lopettaa maidontuotannon kokonaan. Tavanomaiseen maidontuotantoon siirtyvien tilojen kokonaismaitomäärä on 45 % vastanneiden kokonaismaitomäärästä, ja nämä tilat olivat keskimääräistä suurempia ja keskituotokseltaan korkeampia.