Treesearch

Christmas tree production has grown in the last 50 years to one of the major farming enterprises in western North Carolina. The history, importance, and challenges to the Christmas tree industry are reviewed.

Fumigation with methyl bromide is essential in the production of hardwood seedlings in nurseries in the southern United States. However, the proposed rules under the 2008 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Risk Mitigation will further restrict the use of methyl bromide for nursery use.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources Forestry, Iowa State Nursery in Ames grows approximately 4 to 8 million seedlings, consisting of about 50 species. Most of our production is hardwoods. We have not been fumigating very much, if at all, for about 20 years and, with the proposed rules under the 2008 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Risk Mitigation, many other nurseries may be joining us.

Weed management is vital to producing healthy hardwood seedlings. Several methods are available to each nursery, and it is common knowledge that what works for one situation may not work for another. The weed control methods used in nursery beds of hardwood species at the South Carolina SuperTree Nursery (Blenheim) are listed below.

Weeds have existed in nurseries since before the time Bartram grew hardwoods during the 18th century. Hand weeding was the primary method of weed control during the first part of the 20th century. From 1931 to 1970, advances in chemistry increased the use of herbicides, and advances in engineering increased the reliance on machines for cultivation. Many managers now rely on chemical treatments, including methyl bromide, chloropicrin, and various selective herbicides. The last 3 decades of the 20th century saw an increase in regulation of chemicals due to health and environmental concerns....

Athough the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley (LMAV) has experienced substantial afforestation of former agricultural fields during the past 2 decades, seedling standards that support satisfactory outplanting performance of bottomland hardwood tree species are not available. A series of experimental plantations, established on three afforestation sites in the LMAV, provided an opportunity to examine relationships between initial root-collar diameter and the probability of third-year survival for Nuttall oak (Quercus nuttallii), sweet pecan (Carya illinoensis), and green ash (Fraxinus...

Hydrogels and clay slurries are the materials most commonly applied to roots of pines in the southern United States. Most nursery managers believe such applications offer a form of "insurance" against excessive exposure during planting. The objective of this study was to examine the ability of root dip treatments to: (1) support fungal growth; and (2) protect roots from injury during exposure for 1, 2, or 4 hours. Four treatments were tested: kaolin clay, two grades of polyacrylamide hydrogels, and a cornstarch-based hydrogel. In laboratory tests, kaolin clay was the only treatment that...

The Montana Conservation Seedling Nursery (MCSN) in Missoula produces 750,000 container seedlings annually in containers ranging in size from 66 cm3 (4 in3) up to 61 L (16 gal) pots. The MCSN is a production facility with no research funding. When we encounter a promising idea for improving our seedlings or the efficiency of nursery operations, we rarely perform detailed tests. Our standard is a "quick and dirty test." If initial results are promising and we can eliminate anticipated risks, we quickly go operational with the change.

Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) is a key component of sagebrush steppe ecosystems and is a dominant shrub throughout the western United States. Our objective was to identify the effect of container size on plant morphology of Wyoming big sagebrush. We used three different stocktypes (45/340 ml [20 in3], 60/250 ml [15 in3], 112/105 ml [6.4 in3]) of 1-year old seedlings to examine seedling quality in regards to cold hardiness, height, root-collar diameter, dry mass, root volume, shoot volume, and root:shoot. Cold hardiness was measured four times in the fall and once in the...

The choice of growing medium, along with container type, is one of the critical decisions that must be made when starting a nursery. The first growing medium was called "compost" and was developed in the 1930s at the John Innes Horticultural Institute in Great Britain. It consisted of a loam soil that was amended with peat moss, sand, and fertilizers (Bunt 1988). Soil was heavy and variable, however, so it was difficult to achieve consistency from batch to batch. In the 1950s, researchers at the University of California developed the first true artificial growing media using a series of...