© 2003 by Institute of Chartered Foresters
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The effect of soil cultivation methods on rooting depth of young Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.) trees on wet mineral soils in Ireland
1 Department of Crop Science, Horticulture & Forestry, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland 2 Department of Silviculture, SLU, S-90183, Umeä, Sweden 3 Coillte Teoranta, Newtownmountkennedy, Co. Wicklow, Ireland
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.
Received 15 April 2002.