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Home → Publications → Forest Regeneration Manual → Chapter 8 - Seedling Quality of Southern Pines

Chapter 8 - Seedling Quality of Southern Pines

Seedling quality is related to a seedling's ability to survive prolonged environmental stresses and produce vigorous growth following outplanting. This complex concept includes both a seedling's "physiological readiness" to grow and suitable morphological features that will allow the seedling to overcome site limitations. Seedling ontogeny (genetically coded course of development) and phenology (response to environment) alter seedling physiology (processes), and fluctuations in physiology are, in turn, manifested in seedling morphology (structure). Morphological criteria for assessing seedling quality — shoot height, root-collar diameter, and root and shoot architecture — can be manipulated by nursery cultural practices. However, to implement these practices, nursery personnel must understand seedling growth dynamics and allometry (interrelationship of shoot and root growth over time).


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Author(s): Jon D. Johnson, Michael L. Cline

Publication: Forest Regeneration Manual