Step 4 Choosing high quality longleaf pine seedlings

Part B ; Determine the type of seedling the best suits your needs (go back)

In the past, longleaf regeneration efforts have been hampered due to poor quality seedlings that were difficult to plant. Fortunately, through current technology, the regeneration problems of the past have been, overcome for the most part. Better survival and growth enables landowners to regularly and successfully establish vigorously growing longleaf pine stands.

Longleaf pine seedlings that come from the nursery are usually available in two forms; bareroot seedlings and containerized seedlings. Each type of seedling has its pros and cons and is up to the individual landowner to weigh these benefits of each. Bareroot longleaf pine are essentially stock whose roots are exposed at the time of planting. Bareroot seedlings are grown in nursery seedbeds and lifted from the soil in which they are grown to be planted in the field. Containerized seedlings are grown in a variety of hard-walled vessels or in peat pots from seed. For about the past 10 years, container longleaf pine have seen wider acceptance and are being used more and more as an alternative to bareroot stock. Today, appproximately 4 out of every 5 longleaf pine being planted are containerized trees. Quality container seedlings are produced under a variety of different container types.

Pros and Cons of Container vs. Bareroot Longleaf Pine Seedlings

Containerized Seedlings

Pros

•Higher survival than bareroot

•Lower cost per surviving seedling

•Easier to hand plant (thus less of a need to reduce logging slash on cutover sites)

•Store better and for longer periods

•Have a wider planting window

•Higher availability in some areas, i.e., Georgia, Florida and Alabama

Cons

•Higher cost per seedling

•Less tolerant of deep planting

•More bulky and thus more expensive to ship

Bare Root Seedlings:

Pros

•Lower cost per seedling

•Some tree planters are more familiar with planting

•Slightly more tolerant to deeper planting (traditional machine planting methods)

•More available in some areas, i.e., Louisiana

Cons

•Typically have lower survival than container (average 65% survival)

•More restrictive planting window

•More difficult to hand plant

•Shorter storage time

•Need refrigerated storage

So as you can see, the biggest differences between the two types are cost and survivability. Bareroot seedlings are cheaper but usually have lower survival rates. The Longleaf Alliance have put in numerous studies looking at bareroot vs. container longleaf pine. On average, 1 year barerooot survival was 55% while container survival averaged 95%. In our opinion, where container seedlings allow the landowner to be successful in one planting versus two, the large differential in seedling price is easily justified.