[Archive] Nitrogen deficiency in Sitka spruce plantations
Lead Author: C.M.A Taylor
P.M. Tabbush
We use some essential cookies to make this website work.
We’d like to set additional cookies to understand how you use forestresearch.gov.uk, remember your settings and improve our services.
We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services.
Lead Author: C.M.A Taylor
P.M. Tabbush
On moorland and heathland soils in Great Britain nitrogen deficiency can severely restrict the growth of certain conifer species, including Sitka spruce, the main commercial species. Until the 1970s this was thought to be due solely to competition from heather and was commonly known as ‘heather check’. However, increased planting of Sitka spruce on very nutrient-poor soils revealed that, even after removal of heather by herbicide treatment, growth was still limited by low availability of nitrogen. This can be caused by limited soil nitrogen capital and/or slow rate of nitrogen mineralisation. Application of nitrogen fertiliser can overcome this deficiency although several applications may be required to achieve full canopy closure. Once this stage is reached demand for nutrients is reduced due to shading of competing vegetation, improved nutrient cycling and capture of atmospheric nutrients and further inputs of nitrogen should not be required. The major difficulty facing forest managers in determining the treatment of a nitrogen deficient stand is deciding whether heather control, application of nitrogen fertiliser, or a combination of both, will yield the most cost-effective response on any given site. This Bulletin explains the background to the problem, categorises the range of site types involved, and advises on the treatment available. This Bulletin is still available in hardcopy.
Cookies are files saved on your phone, tablet or computer when you visit a website.
We use cookies to store information about how you use the dwi.gov.uk website, such as the pages you visit.
Find out more about cookies on forestresearch.gov.uk
We use 3 types of cookie. You can choose which cookies you're happy for us to use.
These essential cookies do things like remember your progress through a form. They always need to be on.
We use Google Analytics to measure how you use the website so we can improve it based on user needs. Google Analytics sets cookies that store anonymised information about: how you got to the site the pages you visit on forestresearch.gov.uk and how long you spend on each page what you click on while you're visiting the site
Some forestresearch.gov.uk pages may contain content from other sites, like YouTube or Flickr, which may set their own cookies. These sites are sometimes called ‘third party’ services. This tells us how many people are seeing the content and whether it’s useful.