Response of newly planted Norway spruce seedlings to fertilization, irrigation and herbicide treatments

Abstract

-The effect of herbicide, fertilization and irrigation treatments on growth of planted Norway spruce seedlings were investigated in an experiment established in 1998 in southern Sweden. After three years, the amount of ground vegetation was about the same in fertilized, irrigated and fertilized + irrigated plots, but the amount was about double as in the control. Seedling growth was positively affected by the herbicide treatment. Fertilization increased growth when it was combined with herbicides. Irrigation did not have any significant effect on seedling growth. Results from this study indicate that competition for water between ground vegetation and planted Norway spruce seedlings is of little importance. However, this conclusion is restricted to seedling growth during years with at least normal precipitation. It was also indicated that increased nutrient availability is positive for seedling establishment and growth, but that the planted seedlings were not growing at their potential even when herbicide, irrigation and fertilization treatments were combined indicating establishment problems. fertilization / irrigation / herbicide / seedlings / Picea abiesRésumé -Effets de la fertilisation, de l'irrigation et de traitements herbicides sur de jeunes plantations d'épicéa commun. Une expérimentation installée en 1998 dans le sud de la Suède a permis d'étudier l'effet de traitements par irrigation, fertilisation et application d'herbicide sur la croissance de jeunes plantations d'épicéa commun. Au bout de trois ans, l'importance de la végétation basse était à peu près la même dans les parcelles fertilisées, irriguées ou fertilisées et irriguées, mais cette végétation était deux fois plus développée que dans les parcelles témoins. L'application d'herbicide a eu un effet positif sur la croissance des plants. La fertilisation a favorisé leur croissance quand elle était combinée avec l'application d'herbicide. L'irrigation n'a pas eu d'effet significatif sur la croissance des plants. Les résultats de cette étude indiquent que la compétition pour l'eau entre végétation basse et plants d'épicéa est de faible importance. Néanmoins cette conclusion ne peut être tirée que pour la croissance de plants au cours d'années bénéficiant d'un niveau de précipitations au minimum normal. On a également démontré que l'augmentation des ressources en éléments nutritifs favorisait l'installation et la croissance des plants. Mais ces plants utilisés en reboisement n'exprimaient pas tout leur potentiel de croissance, même en combinant les traitements par irrigation, fertilisation et herbicide, ce qui implique l'existence de problèmes de reprise après transplantation. fertilisation / irrigation / herbicide / plantations / Picea abies

Vegetation control and fertilization in midrotation Pinus taeda stands in the southeastern United States

“…Although we did not measure moisture availability, this site is likely to experience droughty conditions during the growing season and we hypothesize that the positive volume responses were a result of improved soil moisture availability. Similar to other studies, our findings indicate that, the primary benefit from VC may be nutritional or moisture related depending on individual site conditions [21,23]. In future studies, it would be interesting to examine VC and fertilization responses where fertilization included, in addition to N and P, a broader selection of nutrients that may be limiting (e.g.…”

“…More recently studies have reported significant growth gains relative to check for VC and fertilization applied singly and when combined for applications at the time of planting [4,18,[21][22][23]. Powers and Reynolds found that in P. ponderosa systems with extended summer droughts and infertile soils the primary limitation to growth was first soil moisture availability and secondarily nutritional limitations [23].…”

Morphology and foliar chemistry of containerized Abies fraseri (Pursh) Poir. seedlings as affected by water availability and nutrition

“…3) also responded positively to irrigation and fertilization applications. These conclusions are in agreement with previous studies related to growth, volume, and biomass production as related to fertilization and irrigation in various conifers species under field conditions (Nilsson and Orlander, 2003;Snowdon and Benson, 1992;Trichet et al, 2008). Maintaining high soil moisture in highly irrigated plots allows stomata to remain opened longer resulting in more volume growth (Albaugh et al, 2008).…”

Physiological and morphological responses of dormant and growing Norway spruce container seedlings to drought after planting

“…It is also possible that high root egression ability of growing seedlings has a more pronounced effect on the maintenance of seedling water balance if, contrary to the present study, soil water content is high at the beginning of the drought period. Finally, it must be remembered that the results from this study are not directly applicable to actual forest site, where newly planted seedlings have to compete with ground vegetation for water and nutrients [23,30].…”