For the period from the 1st of May to the 30th of October 2014, the water balance for Scots pine, Norway spruce, Pedunculate oak and European beech seedlings in a plantation setting was analysed. The experiment was conducted at the container nursery in the Rudy Raciborskie Forest District, Poland. Water was supplied by natural rainfall as well as a by small-droplet irrigation system and two automatic weather stations combined with 32 rain collectors were used to monitor rainfall throughout this research. Rain gauges were located 25 cm above the metal pallets and 10 cm below the nursery containers. An average of 987 mm∙m−2 of water reached the plantation, of which 53% were provided by the irrigation system. Most water was supplied to the oak field, whereas least was given to the spruce plantations and the irrigation water amounted to 535 liters and 422 liters per square meter, respectively. The amount of water percolating through the substrate was approximately 50–65%, depending on the tree species. An average sum of evapotranspiration at the container nursery was estimated to amount to 520 mm∙m−2 during the growth season leading to a total water balance of +463 mm.

Cultivation of seedlings in trays requires the use of specifically developed substrates. This study presents the results of the analyses of selected physical and mechanical parameters of a peat–perlite substrate, in which seedlings of the Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst), European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), and pedunculate oak (Quercus robur L.) were grown during a production season. For each species, the substrate parameters changed throughout the production season, substrate dry weight decreased, whereas its compactness increased with time. Independent of the species, the bulk density and total porosity of the substrate changed or deviated from the optimum range, although the values of porosity were close to maximum and those of density were close to the minimum. In certain periods in the V265 trays with beech and oak seedlings, the substrate was characterized by very low water capacity and excessive air capacity. Compactness measured with a cone penetrometer showed, that this parameter might be used for monitoring the substrate properties.