Mother Tree Selection and Nursery Practices

Presented by

Dinusha Prasadi

Seeds from straight and vigorous trees produce straight and vigorous trees and twisted or stunted trees may produce the same deformities. Therefore mother tree selection is very important in forest plantation establishment. The characteristics of a good mother tree should be: healthy and free of diseases and insects, nearly mature, good producers of the desired product and growing in the midst of a healthy stand of the same species.

There are many seed collection methods such as collecting from natural seed fall, shaking the tree, pruning off seed bearing branches, throwing a rope with weighted end to break off a seed bearing branch, climbing trees to collect seed or collecting seed from felled trees.

The seeds should be new, mature, healthy and well-dried and they are stored in air-tight containers in dry and cool place. Seeds should be protected from attacks of insects, fungi and birds. Seed storage condition is very important and it should be maintained in accordance with the seed requirements. The viability of many seeds is reduced by half within six months under ordinary room conditions. Thus, to improve the storability conditions of seeds, relative humidity and storage temperature should be maintained. The storage conditions of the seeds are varying with the type of species.

A nursery is a place where plants are propagated and grown to usable size before planting in the field. It is the foundation for tree planting success for reforestation and agroforestry. There are many nursery practices. They are nursery establishment, site selection such as location and required nursery area, site preparation and drainage, preparation of seed beds, seed testing, seed pretreatment and growing media preparation, seed germination, transplanting, tending operation of transplanted seedlings and establishment of seedlings nurseries.

The seedling stock should be managed properly to get the good plantation by considering shading, watering, spacing, root pruning, shoot pruning, weeding, fertilising, pest and diseases, grading and culling, hardening-off and seedlings transport in to the plantation site.