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Home → Publications → National Nursery Proceedings → 1990 → Target Seedling Root System Size, Hydraulic Conductivity, and Water Use During Seedling Establishment

Target Seedling Root System Size, Hydraulic Conductivity, and Water Use During Seedling Establishment

Basic survival requires that a seedling root system be large enough to supply water in amounts that cover transpira- tional loss. Because transpiration is an interactive phe- nomenon influenced by the planting environment as well as the shoot and root morphology of the tree, what might be sufficient seedling morphology for one geographic region could be inadequate for another region or another species within the same region. A target seedling mor- phology that has worked well for loblolly pine in the South can be described as 10-12 inches tall, 4 mm in diameter, and having 6 or more lateral roots. The net result is a seedling that has a high probability of survival. The focus of this paper is how hydraulic conductivity and seedling water use can be used to quantify relationships between morphology and function.


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Author(s): William C. Carlson, D. Elaine Miller

Publication: National Nursery Proceedings - 1990

Event: Combined Meeting of the Western Forest Nursery Associations
1990 - Roseburg, OR