Comparison of Survival and Growth of 1-0 and 2-0 White Pine

At TVA's Clinton, Tenn., Nursery, and at other nurseries in the region, white pine is the only species held in the beds for two growing seasons. Except for scattered indi-viduals, 1-0 seedlings are not considered plantable because they do not meet commonly accepted requirements: Well-developed terminal buds, secondary needles, and a minimum top length of 3 inches. One-year-old seedlings rarely have secondary needles, and usually they are less than 3 inches tall. However, these criteria developed from judgments rather than experimentation. If tests showed that 1-year-old white pine was plantable, considerable saving could be realized. For example, in 1960 the cost of producing 2-0 white pine seedlings at the Clinton Nursery was $9 per thousand, and $4 of this total was incurred the second year. To test the practicability of planting 1-0 stock, TVA initiated a series of small controlled tests in 1957 to compare the survival and growth of 1- and 2-year-old white pine seedlings. These tests, with 25 trees per plot, were set up in three areas of eastern Tennessee during a 5-year period. Additional comparisons of 1-0 seedlings, involving size of seedling and development of terminal buds, were also made in some of the tests. All the tests were designed to permit statistical evaluation of the results. In 1958, 1959, and 1960 the U.S. Forest Service used 174,000 1-year-old seedlings in routing planting operations on the Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia and the Cumberland National Forest in Kentucky. Survival counts and height measurements, made annually in most cases, were discontinued in 1962, when the plantings were 2 to 5 years old.

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Author(s): S. D. Bean, J. C. Allen

Publication: Tree Planters' Notes - Issue 65 (1964)