Abstract

The research reported in this article, carried out in the period 1995-1997, was part of a large-scale project investigating the impact of soil cultivation/drainage practices upon water-table depth, rooting depth, root architecture and biomass production of young Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.) trees on surface water gley soils. On two sites in the mid-west of Ireland, a total of 207 trees, 5 and 7 years old, were excavated over a 2-year period, during which water-table depths were monitored. Results showed that neither mound drains nor mole drains had as great an effect on tree rooting depth as the presence of a planting mound. In the cultivation treatments that included planting on mounds, tree roots were mainly confined within the mounds, with the exception of the tree root systems in the mole-and-mound treatment on one of the sites, where the mean root depth of both the 5-year-old and 7-year-old trees reached almost 20 cm below the original soil level. Continued evaluation of these experiments is required to assess the long-term effectiveness of the different drainage and cultivation methods in increasing rooting depth and improving tree stability

Published in

Forestry
2003, Volume: 76, number: 4, pages: 465-477
Publisher: OXFORD UNIV PRESS

SLU Authors

• Sundström, Erik

  • Department of Silviculture, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/forestry/76.4.465

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/2687