Grading Specifications of Ponderosa Pine Seedlings at Lucky Peak Nursery
Grading of bareroot planting stock is a necessary step in the process of reforestation. At Lucky Peak Nursery near Boise, Idaho, much effort and expense is expended on grading and counting seedlings each year at lifting time before the trees are packaged and shipped. The purpose is to screen out damaged and deformed seedlings or trees too small to survive harsh Intermountain planting conditions. Grading standards can be somewhat arbitrary at times because data on which to base them is not available. The next step in the grading process takes place on the Ranger District. In preparation for planting, the wrapping crew discards any seedlings they feel do not meet their standards and the specifications are not necessarily those used at the nursery. Grading may also be done by the tree planters who ultimately decide whether a seedling will be planted. Finally, it is the planting site that culls out all of the seedlings unequipped to survive where they are planted. It is this last culling process that we attempt to mimic in all the grading we do.
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Author(s): John P. Sloan
Publication: National Nursery Proceedings - 1994
Event:
Combined Western Forest Nursery Association and the Forest Nursery Association of British Columbia
1994 - Moscow, ID