Survival rate of the Crimean pine forest cultures (Pinus pallasiana D. Don) created by non-standard seedlings on Don hilly sands

Experimental forest cultivations of Crimean pine were produced on cohesive-sandy soils with hilly terrain to show the possibility of using non-standard seedlings. The minimum height of the seedlings was 10 cm (a standard indicator) compared to 2.0…2.9 cm – the stem diameter at the root collar (a non-standard indicator). In an experiment the agronomic technique of preplant treatment of the seedlings’ root systems with a solution of Kornevin (a biostimulant, Agrosintez, Russia) was used. When creating forest cultures by hand planting, the differences between the experimental options in terms of the survival rate and the nature of variation depending on the quality of the seedlings used were not significant (actual Student’s and Fisher’s coefficients is less than tabular). Treatment of root systems with Kornevin solution contributed to a more even distribution of the plants in the area. Mechanized planting did not provide for a high survival rate of forest cultures (the rate was 58.4% in the 1st year and 37.3% in the 3rd year), while the surviving plants did not form a homogeneous population (variation factor 30.5…71.0). The results indicated that it was possible to use seedlings of non-standard sizes in renewal after treating root systems with solutions of root stimulants.