The influence of different forest organic matter on the growth of one-year old planted Norway spruce seedlings in a greenhouse experiment

A greenhouse trial was carried out to improve the knowledge of how forest organic matter could be utilized in site preparation and the choice of planting spot for Picea abies (L.) Karst. One-year old Norway spruce seedlings were grown for 26 weeks in pots containing pure mineral soil, forest organic matter in three different states of decomposition and combined treatments where the organic matter was mixed with or placed on the surface of the mineral soil (volume proportions of organic:mineral of 1:2). Watering was adapted to the water retention characteristics of each growing medium in order to keep the soil water potential between -4 and -5 kPa in all pots.In its pure form as well as combined with mineral soil, the moderately decomposed mor organic matter gave a higher seedling dry weight increment than the corresponding growing media containing the more decomposed humus. Adding mor or humus to mineral soil increased the seedling dry weight increment by 30–140% and 10–40%, respectively. The largest seedlings grew in the pure mor and humus. Mixing these forms of organic matter with mineral soil appeared to reduce seedling growth as compared to placing them on the mineral soil surface. The increment increase compared to plain mineral soil mostly consisted of proleptic growth and was probably due to the improved nutrient availability of the growing media. Fresh organic matter (chopped needles and twigs) seemed to impair seedling root function and reduced the dry weight increment by 30–50% as compared with pure mineral soil.The results suggest that as long as the water and temperature requirements are fulfilled planting Norway spruce seedlings without scarification and/or gathering extra mor and humus to the planting position should improve seedling growth as compared to the growth following scarification. Unmixed fresh needles and twigs or fresh needles and twigs combined with plain mineral soil should be avoided when planting Norway spruce seedlings.