Performance After Planting of Four Types of Container-grown White Spruce Seedlings

Abstract

Four types of container-grown white spruce (Piceaglauca (Moench) Voss. var. albertiana (S. Brown) Sarg.) seedlings were produced by rearing to two ages and applying two different moisture and nutrient regimes. They were planted at three field sites and in a controlled environment with cooled rooting zone, two soil textures and two moisture levels. Growth after 12 weeks was related to a variety of initial seedling characteristics in an attempt to identify predictive characteristics useful for assessing seedling quality.The oldest, most fertilized and irrigated and hence largest seedling type performed best under all test conditions, both in terms of survival and growth. There were no interactions between seedling type and treatment conditions. All initial characteristics were strongly predictive of subsequent characteristics except shoot/root ratio and number of white root tips.A set of rearing conditions are specified suitable for white spruce container seedlings in central Alberta.