Lengthened Cold Stratification Improves Bulk Whitebark Pine Germination
Crucial to the restoration of whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) ecosystems is the ability of forest managers to locate, propagate, and reintroduce viable, disease-resistant populations to these jeopardized systems. Currently, one of the most limiting steps in this process is the slow, labor-intensive, and expensive process of producing whitebark seedlings at forest nurseries. From a nursery production standpoint, whitebark seed dormancy is complex and more problematic that other western conifers. Although seedling culture has evolved and become more streamlined, overcoming seed dormancy is still a major challenge to efficient seed use and large-scale seedling production. Releasing seed dormancy through scarification and stratification needs to result in adequate and consistent germination percentages, and also needs to be practical and efficient at a restoration-production scale. This paper describes trials comparing germination percentages of whitebark seedlots grown under operational conditions at the Forest Service Coeur d’Alene Nursery to determine the relative influence of seed source elevation and location, seedlot (collection) age, and 60 or 90-days of cold stratification.
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Author(s): Nathan Robertson, Kent Eggleston, Emily Overton, Marie McLaughlin
Event:
2013 Winter Forest Nursery Notes
2013
