TITLE:
Influence of Soil Types on Establishment and Early Growth of Populus trichocarpa
AUTHORS:
Henrik Böhlenius, Rolf Övergaard, Sandra Jämtgård
KEYWORDS:
Poplar Establishment, Soil Texture, Cutting Growth, Nutrient, Agricultural Soil, Forest Soil
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Forestry,
Vol.6 No.5,
September
5,
2016
ABSTRACT: When planning poplar plantations there are many factors to consider that
can influence young plant development. In addition to soil preparation,
vegetation management, protection against browsers, and plant-type, it is
important to have information on how soil properties influence young plant
development. Comparisons of establishment and growth in different soils are
complicated as experimental sites often are geographically distant where
temperature, precipitation and vegetation can vary, thus complicate the
analysis. In this case study, a new approach of studying growth of different
soil at one experimental site are undertaken by translocating agricultural
soils, a silty clay loam and a sandy soil, and common forest soil types, forest
moraine soil and forest peat to a single experimental site, thus guaranteeing
identical climatic conditions. In all soils, transplanted P. trichocarpa cuttings initially developed in to plants. After 4
weeks though, plants grown in forest peat stopped their growth while plants in
the other soils gradually continued their growth with no evidence that soil
types influenced above ground plant development. Unlike above-groundgrowth,
root growth and morphology were influenced by soil texture with more root
growth occurring if soils have sandy texture. These findings give advice to
some of the limitations when planning for establishment of poplar plantations
either at agricultural or at forest land.