The susceptibility of white spruce seedlings to overwinter injury and their post-injury field responses

Abstract

Foliar and stem injury was assessed in white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) seedlings planted in the spring and in the summer of 1992 and injured during their first overwintering on two sites in the southeastern boreal forest of British Columbia. Freeze-desiccation appears to be the main cause of the injury. Seedlot effect on the injury was significant, while planting time effect was not. Although the seedlot effect may be confounded with stock-type effect, analyses indicated increasing injury with increasing seedling height and declining ground-level diameter. Seedling vigour (height and diameter increments in the previous growing season) was also significantly related to the injury which increased with increasing vigour but the significance of this relationship varied from site to site. Condition of injured seedlings generally declined further during the post-injury growing season. This decline was greater in spring-planted than in summer-planted seedlings. Excavated root systems of container-grown seedlings showed the majority of post-planting root growth originating from the bottom-third of the nursery-container plug, deeper than 10 cm from the soil surface. This is seen as a factor potentially contributing to desiccation injury as the soil in the geographic region often remains frozen at these depths long into spring.