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Home → Publications → National Nursery Proceedings → 1986 → IRRIGATION AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR SEEDLING GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

IRRIGATION AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR SEEDLING GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Irrigation is an integral cultural practice in forest nursery production. It is used to supplement rainfall to maintain adequate water for seedling growth, to manipulate the seedlings' thermal environment, to apply fertilizers and pesticides, and to harden seedlings for lifting. Irrigation primarily impacts the maintenance of turgor which drives cell enlargement. Cell enlargement occurs in a stepwise manner, directly dependent on water. Extrapolation to an entire seedling depends on compounding cellular growth over thousands of cell and the modifications imposed by the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. Watering requirement for seedlings changes over the growing season due to varying water supply mechanisms and increasing needle surface area which affects water loss. The irrigation practices of 54 southern nurseries is summarized. Additional Keywords: water potential, osmotic potential, turgor potential, tensiometer, southern pine.


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Author(s): Jon D. Johnson

Publication: National Nursery Proceedings - 1986

Event: Southern Forest Nursery Association
1986 - Pensecola, Florida