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Field performance of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) seedlings planted in disc trenched or mounded sites over an extended planting season

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Abstract

Economic pressures have driven an ever-widening period during which foresters use machines to plant Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) seedlings. In Fennoscandia, this period has recently stretched to the entire growing season. To evaluate the performance of seedlings planted during this extended period, three experiments were carried out in Central and Northern Finland over 2 years. One-year-old and current-year seedlings were planted in mounds or disc-trenched furrows when soil temperatures were >0°C. When 1-year-old seedlings grown for spring planting and overwintered outdoors were planted after mid-June, more needles browned and growth was reduced, possibly because seedlings were oversized with respect to planting density and the volume of growth media. When current-year seedlings sown in spring were planted from July to November, those planted in late September and October grew less in later years than those planted earlier, but survival was unaffected. No large differences in field performance were found with respect to whether seedlings were planted in mounds or disc-trenched furrows. In conclusion, Scots pine seedlings can be machine planted in mounds or furrows during May and early June (later in the North) and then continued from early August until late September, provided climatic conditions in late spring and early autumn are typical and similar to those experienced in Central Finland.

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Acknowledgments

PI02 and RO04 experiments were conducted in co-operation with UPM-Kymmene Metsä and Metsähallitus, respectively. We are grateful to these agencies as well as Kyösti Konttinen, Leo Tervo, Ritva Pitkänen, Ossi Muuronen, Pekka Savola, Riitta Toivanen, Auli Lehtinen, Anna-Maija Väänänen and Pekka Voipio for technical assistance in the establishment of experiments and collection of data. We also thank Dr. Juha Lappi for statistical advice and Dr. Michael Hardman for checking the language. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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  1. Finnish Forest Research Institute, Suonenjoki Research Unit, Juntintie 154, 77600, Suonenjoki, Finland

    Jaana Luoranen & Risto Rikala

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  1. Jaana Luoranen
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  2. Risto Rikala
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Correspondence to Jaana Luoranen.

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Luoranen, J., Rikala, R. Field performance of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) seedlings planted in disc trenched or mounded sites over an extended planting season. New Forests 44, 147–162 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11056-012-9307-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11056-012-9307-y

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