Effects of cone-induction treatments on black spruce (Picea mariana) current-year needle development and gas exchange properties

Abstract

Both drought and root pruning (RP) increased the number of cones induced when black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.) grafts were injected with gibberellins A(4/7) (GA.), but their effects on predawn shoot water potential and current year needle development differed. Drought decreased predawn shoot water potential (ψ(pd)), but only during the period when irrigation was withheld, and it had no effect on the growth or gas exchange properties of current-year needles. Conversely, root pruning had little effect on ψ(pd), but it resulted in trees with smaller current-year needles that had lower nitrogen and chlorophyll concentrations and reduced rates of gas exchange up to the later stages of shoot elongation compared with needles of control trees. These findings are discussed in relation to potential effects on the development of induced cones in the following growth cycle.