The development of spruce and pine plantations after early silviculture treatments
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Date
2018
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University of New Brunswick
Abstract
A plantation establishment trial was initiated in 1994 with two scarification treatments (two passes of a Marden drum chopper, and a control), three herbicide treatments (two applications over the first two years following planting, three applications at years 1, 2, and 4 following planting, and a control), and four species (jack pine, black spruce, white spruce, and Norway spruce). Subplots of 18 trees in each species×scarification×herbicide treatment combination (100 tree blocks) were measured over time. This report presents the results at age 21. In this study, herbicide application had the greatest influence on tree growth, resulting in the influence of species and drum chopping to be insignificant. Jack pine responded greatest to the administration of three herbicide treatments by 63.6cm in mean height, and 0.872cm in mean diameter at breast height (DBH) at age 21 compared to the next largest species for each growth response. Each species achieved ≥ 74% survival when herbicide was applied, except for Norway spruce that had the lowest survival of 62% overall. Black spruce had the greatest survival when no treatments were applied.