Healthy and high quality seedlings have a higher survival rate and faster growth in the field than poor quality seedlings. The rapid growth of the seedling makes it able to compete with weeds and reduce initial labor costs. Fast growth also enables the farmer to harvest wood or fruit sooner and increases the farmer's return on investment.
Healthy Seedlings Features
A healthy seedling has two main aspects. The first one is the genetic quality or seedling seed, and the second component is the physical quality of the seedling, i.e. its physical condition when it leaves the nursery. Improving the genetic quality of seedlings requires a long-term seed selection strategy, while improving the physical quality can only be done in one or two seasons.
Seed Source Quality
The characteristics of the mother trees can greatly affect the characteristics of the seedlings. The quality of the seed can determine whether the seedling will grow well or poorly. Studies around the world have shown that good seed improves survival, wood and fruit quality and shortens rotation or harvest time. Since trees take longer to mature than crops or livestock, tree planting becomes a long-term investment and choosing high-quality seeds is very important.
Physical Quality of Seedlings
No single characteristic determines the quality of a healthy seedling. The characteristic of a healthy seedling is a combination of height, diameter, plant nutrition, health, root size and shape. Together, these traits determine how well the plant will adapt in the field and affect survival rates.
Many of these traits work together and influence each other. The purpose of choosing a good seedling is to have most of these features in the seedling. Depending on the type of environmental conditions, these traits will be different for healthy seedlings, so you should talk to foresters and farmers to find the most important traits. For example, for dry and stony soils short seedlings may be suitable and produced in small containers, while for wet places or active pastures tall seedlings may be suitable.