Phone: 541-737-6576
Fax: 541-737-4316
Click here for SQES Order Form
Ship seedlings to:
Seedling Quality Evaluation Services
ATTN: DIANE HAASE
OSU College of Forestry
3015 SW Western Blvd.
Corvallis, OR 97331
Please label the box: "LIVE SEEDLINGS - KEEP COOL"
Each year, several million
seedlings are outplanted. However, many of those do not survive or grow
well. Often, mortality and poor field performance are attributed to poor
seedling stock quality. Each year's crop can have a high degree of
variability due to a variety of factors. It is important to establish and
measure quality criterion so as to create a basis for nursery and buyer
understanding of crop quality at lifting and after outplanting.
The Nursery Technology
Cooperative (NTC) offers a regional seedling quality evaluation
service. Not only does this provide an important resource for nursery and
reforestation managers, it also generates a regional database on annual
seedling quality trends. In addition, it creates an opportunity to
research relationships between quality measurements and outplanting performance
and to examine species and stocktypes for which there are limited quality data.
Morphological QUALITY
Morphological standards vary greatly by
species, seed zone, and stocktype. No single factor has been shown to
provide a perfect prediction of outplanting success but each has been linked
with seedling performance potential in some way.
Morphological measurements available include:
height, stem diameter, root volume, and shoot volume. Each report includes
the mean, standard deviation, and range of measurements as well as graphs of the
data.
Cold hardiness
Cold hardiness is defined as a minimum
temperature at which a certain percentage of a random seedling population will
survive or will sustain a given level of damage. Changes in LT50
(lethal temperature for 50% of a population) are strongly linked to the seedling
dormancy cycle and stress resistance and are influenced by seed source, nursery
practices, and environment. The LT50 at lifting has been shown
to correlate well with first-year survival and shoot growth.
