Nutrient Loading of Aspen, Jack Pine and White Spruce Seedlings for Potential Out-planting in Oil Sands Reclamation

Low nutrient availability and competing vegetation are some of the issues facing tree crop establishment for land reclamation in the oil sands region. A possible solution to both problems is to load seedlings with nutrients while they are in the nursery. Here, I report on results from a research project aimed at producing aspen, jack pine and white spruce seedlings that have nutrient reserves built up (or nutrient-loaded) in the nursery stage. Seedlings were either conventionally (C) or exponentially (E) fertilized or not (CK). The results showed that seedlings produced under a modified exponential fertilization regime have higher nutrient reserves than those produced conventionally with similar height and root collar diameter (RCD). The optimum rates in the modified nutrient loading model were 240, 500 and 450 mg N plant-1 season -1 for aspen, jack pine and white spruce, respectively.