Nutrient enrichment of white spruce seedlings during nursery culture and initial plantation establishment.

Growth and nutrient dynamics of bare-root white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) seedlings were monitored for three years in a nursery and for one season after planting to assess effects of three nursery fertilization regimes. Nitrogen (totaling 0, 650, and 1300 kg N ha(-1) for 3 years) was applied conventionally in equal amounts during the growing season. The high-N treatment, representing a nutrient loading regime, was also applied seasonally at exponentially increasing rates as a fourth treatment. By the end of the 3-year nursery rotation, the N treatments had stimulated growth by 104-180% and nutrient uptake by as much as 381, 224 and 145% for N, P and K, respectively, inducing large accumulations of N and P in both conventionally and exponentially loaded seedlings. Compared with exponentially loaded seedlings, the concentrations of nutrients were less in conventionally loaded seedlings although their biomass was larger (31%). High nutrient reserves in the seedlings at the end of the nursery rotation resulted in increased biomass production (40-190%) after planting, which was related to the ability of the seedlings to retranslocate internal reserves for new growth, despite little or no net uptake of nutrients during the first season after planting. Compared with conventionally loaded seedlings, retranslocation was greater in exponentially loaded seedlings, which had accumulated larger and more readily available nutrient reserves during the nursery phase. The shortness of this study limits its usefulness for predicting the persistence of the loading response after planting, but we postulate that the high nutrient status of loaded seedlings at the end of the nursery rotation will contribute to future growth through increased nutrient storage and retranslocation, thus prolonging the loading response.

Steady-state nutrition of Pinus resinosa seedlings: response to nutrient loading, irrigation and hardening regimes.

To test effects of fertilization on late-season growth and nutrient content of container-grown red pine (Pinus resinosa Ait.), seedlings were subjected to a factorial combination of two fertilization regimes (exponentially increasing concentrations providing 25 (1N) and 75 (3N) mg N seedling(-1), respectively) and two irrigation regimes (well-watered and water-stressed) followed by drought-hardening or nonhardening. The fertilization treatments gave rise to steady-state nutrition in the seedlings during the prehardening phase. The 3N treatment increased macronutrient uptake significantly more than dry matter production, particularly in the roots, giving rise to what has been called luxury consumption of nutrients, or nutrient loading. Nutrient loading was higher in well-watered seedlings than in water-stressed seedlings. Among well-watered seedlings, relative growth rate of nutrient-loaded seedlings was more sensitive to drought during the hardening phase than that of nonloaded seedlings. However, when watering was resumed at the end of the hardening treatment, the relative growth rate of the nutrient-loaded seedlings (421%) exceeded that of the nonloaded seedlings (213%). Nitrogen accumulation was also higher in nutrient-loaded seedlings than in nonloaded seedlings during the post-hardening phase.

Limits of tolerance to high temperatures causing direct and indirect damage to black spruce.

The heat tolerance of actively growing 13-15-week-old black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.) was determined by exposing seedlings to temperatures of 40 to 60 degrees C for durations of 5 seconds to 3 hours by direct immersion in a hot water bath. Direct and indirect heat damage to needles were differentiated by assessing damage 5 minutes (direct) and 3 weeks (indirect) after exposure to high temperature. Both direct and indirect damage increased exponentially with the duration of exposure to high temperatures. However, indirect damage occurred at lower temperatures and with shorter periods of exposure than direct damage. Arrhenius plots of length of exposure versus exposure temperature revealed that the energy of activation for indirect damage was 384 kJ mol(-1), 36% higher than for direct damage. Both direct and indirect damage were less in seedlings preconditioned by a heat shock treatment (3 hours of exposure to an air temperature of 38 degrees C on each of 6 days prior to immersion in the water bath). Preconditioned seedlings withstood higher temperatures and longer durations of high temperature exposure than seedlings not preconditioned by heat shock.