Nursery factors influencing containerized Pinus pinaster seedlings' initial growth

Abstract

Maritime pine (Pinus pinaster) containerized seedlings were raised outdoors at different fertilizer regimes, sowing date or culture duration to assess nursery factors influencing first year growth in the field. Seedling biomass, and N, P and K content before outplanting were affected by these different factors but the one year field growth was more related to N concentration than with morphological traits. The results are discussed in view to improve the plant stock quality in nursery.