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5.9 Nursery Procedures for Radiata Pine
Authors: M I Menzies, M J Dibley, W D Brown, T FauldsPublication: , Volume Section 5 – Plantation silviculture, pp 9, Dec 2023
Abstract: Forest establishment is a critical phase of the forestry cycle, as the success of this phase sets the scene for the whole rotation. It is important to have a crop evenly distributed over the site, with all trees expressing optimum and uniform early growth. Without this, the value of the final crop will be reduced and the length of the rotation may be extended. Production of high quality planting stock in forest nurseries is an essential component of the establishment process. The New Zealand planting programme in 2003 was about 58,000 ha, requiring some 58 million plants. Controlpollinated seed, produced by crossing amongst the best parents in the tree breeding programme, is now widely available, and methods of vegetative propagation using cuttings and tissue-cultured plantlets have been developed to allow greater forest areas to be established from this seed. About 57% of radiata pine planting stock was produced by vegetative propagation in 2001.