Abstract
Seedling quality is related to a seedling’s ability to survive prolonged environmental stresses and produce vigorous growth following outplanting. This complex concept includes both a seedling’s “physiological readiness” to grow and suitable morphological features that will allow the seedling to overcome site limitations. Seedling ontogeny (genetically coded course of development) and phenology (response to environment) alter seedling physiology (processes), and fluctuations in physiology are, in turn, manifested in seedling morphology (structure). Morphological criteria for assessing seedling quality — shoot height, root-collar diameter, and root and shoot architecture — can be manipulated by nursery cultural practices. However, to implement these practices, nursery personnel must understand seedling growth dynamics and allometry (interrelationship of shoot and root growth over time). Physiological criteria for assessing quality include water relations, nutrition, carbohydrates, and dormancy and cold hardiness. Water and nutritional status, responsive to environmental changes, also can be influenced by nursery practices and, in turn, affect carbohydrate production and storage and, in part, dormancy and cold hardiness. Inappropriate or ill-timed cultural practices can produce seedlings of inferior morphological grade that perform poorly in the field. Moreover, careless handling during lifting, packaging, storing, and planting can degrade high-quality seedlings such that field survival and growth suffer. To predict quality before planting, nursery managers and foresters can subject seedlings to morphological, physiological, and/or performance tests. The better morphological tests are based on diameter, alone or in combination with height. Physiological tests include mitotic index, carbohydrate concentration, and cold hardiness, and performance tests include root-growth potential and budbreak with or without stressing. Future tests may rely on infrared thermography and spectroradio-metry, chlorophyll a fluorescence, volatile-compound emissions, and biochemical markers.
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Johnson, J.D., Cline, M.L. (1991). Seedling Quality of Southern Pines. In: Duryea, M.L., Dougherty, P.M. (eds) Forest Regeneration Manual. Forestry Sciences, vol 36. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3800-0_8
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