Performance of spot-seeded oaks and walnut on an eastern Kentucky minesoil

Abstract

ABSTRACT A study of the effects of fertilizer and herbaceous competition on the survival and growth of spot-seeded oaks and walnut was established in 1979. Species included bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa), pin oak (Q. palustris), white oak (Q. alba), chestnut oak (Q. prinus), and black walnut (Juglans nigra). The treatments consisted of fertilizing with a fertilizer tablet and broadcast seeding a grass and legume mixture. All test plots were mulched with a mixture of composted sewage sludge and hardwood bark. Initial stocking of all oaks was better than 60 percent, but by the end of the sixth growing season, only bur oak had maintained a stocking level that was considered successful (70 percent). Stocking of the other oaks and walnut dropped to less than 20 percent. Evaluation of the bur oaks after 10 growing seasons showed that the saplings in the fertilizer plots had grown significantly taller than those in the other treatments; average height was 176 cm. Poorest growth was in the fertiliser plus grass plus legume plots; average height was 52 cm.