Biometric Parameters of Planting Material as a Test Indicator of Success of Pinus silvestris L. Plantations

The creation and cultivation of artificial plantations of conifers largely depends on the planting material quality. The paper is devoted to the study of the relationship between the main parameters of planting material of Scots pine (Pinus silvestris L.) with inventory indices of artificial plantations. Forest trials of Scots pine in the Arkhangelsk region, created in a haircap-moss forest site type, were investigated. Seedlings of Scots pine with standard size were divided into large, medium, small according to the diameter of the root cervix in order to set the experiment, which aimed to determine the relationship between the parameters of planting material and characteristics of the forming plantations. The research purpose determined the main task, mainly, to find out from which plants the “trees of the future” (fast-growing large specimens) are laid out. Plants grown from the large seedlings are characterized by the greatest height. This position, in relation to individuals formed from medium and small planting material, is maintained and gradually increases. From the initial phases of development, a kind of mobile equilibrium is established in the studied plantation. All the trees are growing at a very fast rate, but the initial (at the time of planting on the silvicultural area) size of the planting material corresponding to the pine plants that survived in different years on the plantations continues to remain constant. It was found that, the largest number of leaders (47 % of all survived seedlings) grew of the large seedlings by the end of the 2nd age class. Therefore, high-quality soil treatment together with the use of high-quality proportionally developed planting material significantly increases the inventory indices of plants in the stand, and allows getting the target assortments15–20 years earlier.