TreeLines

With planting season in full swing, it’s vital to pay attention to the planting conditions and wide temperature fluctuations we experience every year.

Bareroot and containerized tree seedlings must be handled carefully from the time they are harvested at the nursery, until they’re transplanted in the field. Equally important is planting seedlings correctly. Below are 8 Tips to Ensure Best Survival.

Monitor environmental conditions and adjust field operations as necessary to optimize your seedling survival. By following these tips, you enhance the likelihood of successful planting. Reforestation costs are the landowner’s primary forestry investment during a timber stand’s life. Good seedling survival sets the stage for the next forest’s productivity and the landowner’s returns on investment. Remember that ArborGen Nurseries and Reforestation Advisors are ready to help you with your questions. Your success is our success.

8 Tips to Ensure Best Survival

1. Keep seedlings cool.
2. Keep seedlings from freezing.
3. Keep seedlings moist. Seedling roots must never be allowed to dry out even for a few minutes.
4. Handle seedlings carefully.
5. Keep storage duration short.
6. Don’t plant small, weak seedlings.
7. Don’t plant when soils are dry.
8. Don’t plant when weather conditions are critical. 

This article, “Transplanting Stress in Bareroot Conifer Seedlings: Its Development and Progression to Establishment” by W.J. Rietveld confirms the potential harm to seedlings with poor handling, including temperature and root exposure.

Protecting Your Seedlings During Transit

It’s Never Too Early to Plan for Your Next Planting

ArborGen, we’ve already begun meeting with landowners and consultants about their plans and goals for 2021. Now is a great time to call your Reforestation Advisor to determine the specific seedlings to meet your reforestation needs. With many Southeast areas experiencing severe weather events last year, along with COVID-19-related shutdowns, we expect demand to be high. In fact, we are already committing significant portions of our crop. If you’re a landowner, forestry consultant, or tree planter, be sure to secure your seedlings soon to get the best families for your area or provenance.

During the 2020 growing season, all of our Piedmont Loblolly inventory became tight by the early summer, and customers were scrambling to find any Longleaf seedlings available. The past few years have seen a south-wide shortage of Longleaf pine seedlings, and a shortage of Loblolly seedlings for specific areas. Our Loblolly MCP^® families for the coastal region were already sold out early in the growing season. As for hardwoods, our oak inventory was depleted well before last fall, and we sold out of many of the more desirable oaks for landowners. Make sure you can get the seedlings you need by making your plans now.

Contact your ArborGen Reforestation Advisor to discuss what you need to produce the best forest for your future.

Customer Success Story: Charleston Stockton – Crockett, TX

An Important Survey from Forest Resources Association

During August 2020, FRA was successful in having H-2B forestry workers recognized in the national interest exception to the President’s Order that suspended non-immigrant labor. This success would not have been accomplished without your help in providing the information FRA collected from our survey in July. The national interest exception provided employers the opportunity to meet seasonal labor needs. This second survey will help FRA assess how well the national interest exception helped your company meet labor needs for forestry work. Please complete the survey by January 15, 2021. The information collected will assist FRA in advocating for improved access to non-immigrant labor for forestry work. The survey should take less than 15 minutes to complete.

Focus Group Participation Request: FRA is committed to improving the accessibility of non-immigrant labor through the H-2B visa program or other means. During the 117th Congress, FRA anticipates that legislation will be introduced that may affect the accessibility to non-immigrant labor. We would like to hear from you as FRA strategizes on this issue. As such, FRA will be hosting one or more focus groups of employers of H-2B forestry workers. Each focus group would be conducted online and last up to two hours. If you would like to participate in the focus group, please let us know by providing your contact information at the end of the survey.

I encourage you to complete this survey. Again, without the information provided by the survey in you completed in July, we would not have been successful in receiving an exception under the national interest guidance.

Requested Response by January 18, 2021.

Seedlings Going Fast!

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