Survival and competitiveness of Quercus rubra regeneration associated with planting stocktype and harvest opening intensity

Published source details Morrissey R.C., Jacobs D.F., Davis A.S. & Rathfon R.A. (2010) Survival and competitiveness of Quercus rubra regeneration associated with planting stocktype and harvest opening intensity. New forests, 40, 273-287.
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This study is summarised as evidence for the following.

	Action	Category
	Use mechanical thinning before or after planting Action Link

Use mechanical thinning before or after planting

A replicated study in 2001-2007 in temperate broadleaf forest in Indiana, USA (Morrissey et al. 2010) found that large gap size increased the survival rate of northern red oak Quercus rubra seedlings compared with medium size gaps, gap size also increased the height and diameter of seedlings planted without containers but not of container-planted seedlings. Survival was higher in large (52-60%) than in medium gap plots (20-41%), but did not differ to small gap plots (33-65%). For bare-root seedling, height (large gaps: 190-210 cm; medium gaps: 125-150 cm; small gaps: 75-100 cm) and diameter (large gaps: 2.0-2.1 cm; medium gaps: 1.6-1.1 cm; small gaps: 0.9-1.0 cm) increased with gap size. Height (190-330 cm) and diameter (2.5-3.2 cm) of container seedlings was similar in all treatments. Four large, four medium and three small gap plots (0.400, 0.100 and 0.024 ha clearcuts, respectively) were established in 2002 and planted with 60, 40 and 20 northern red oak seedlings (both bare-root and container seedlings) respectively. Data weref collected five years after planting.