Seed and seeding biology

 

Foresty Commission programme manager:	Helen McKay
Research contact and location:	Forest Management Division Forest Research

Until recently, British forestry has been based on raising seedlings in the hospitable environment of a nursery, and transferring the best ones to the forest planting site.  Today there are many woodland managers who would prefer to use more natural processes in the creation and maintenance of uneven-aged and continuous-cover forests.  Two methods are being increasingly employed, 'natural regeneration' (or more accurately 'human-assisted natural regeneration') and 'direct seeding', but are both proving to be much less predictable at establishing trees than traditional techniques.  One major cause is an insufficient understanding of the factors that affect seed production, predation, germination, and early growth.  A second problem is that techniques to store and handle tree seed, especially of many broadleaved species, lag at least 50 years behind that of agricultural, horticultural, vegetable and flower seeds.

An improved knowledge of tree seed characteristics will enable better human assistance to be given to 'natural regeneration'.  And improvements to tree seed quality and performance will increase the reliability of direct sowing and the efficiency of nursery production.

Outputs will include a guide to the identification of recently germinated seedlings in the field; it is being designed so that an electronic version can be used on a palmtop. Other publications include a Practice Note on raising trees and shrubs from seeds and journal publications on the efficacy of seed repellents, seed testing techniques, direct seedling of ash and sycamore, and the predation preferences for seeds of different trees and shrubs.

Further information is available at: http://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/website/forestresearch.nsf/ByUnique/INFD-63BCWL

Commissioned reports

No reports available at this time