Weed control trials with fibre mulch, glyphosate and terbuthylazine in Scots pine plantations.

• Main Authors: Siipilehto, Jouni, Lyly, Olavi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Finnish Society of Forest Science 1995-01-01
• Series: Silva Fennica
• Online Access: https://www.silvafennica.fi/article/5545

The following treatments were compared in three Scots pine ( L.) reforestation areas on a scarified moist mineral-soil site in southern Finland, planted with 1+1 bareroot stock in spring 1987: (a) no weed control treatment; (b) mulching with a fibre slurry produced by mixing wastepaper with water and applied 1 cm deep to an area of 60 cm in diameter around the seedling soon after planting; (c) glyphosate (at 2 kg ha) sprayed on a 1 m spot around the seedling in early August 1987; (d) terbuthylazine (at 10 kg ha) applied as (c). Monitoring of the trials over a 4-year period between 1987â90 showed that none of the treatments reduced surface vegetation to an extent that would have benefited pine. The percentage cover development of the vegetation, dominated by and , followed much the same pattern in all treatments, with (c) slightly favouring forbs. Survival of pine at the end of the study period was about 90%, with non-significant differences between treatments. Mulching and terbuthylazine treatment slightly reduced seedling height growth in the second year. Growth was better in glyphosate treatment than in terbuthylazine treatment in the lowest (<30%) and the highest (>60%) pre-treatment weed cover classes, and in the latter also better than in untreated control. Mulching gave variable results; at its best it provided also good control of weeds for several years, without, however, improving the initial development of pine in these trials.Pinus sylvestris-12-1Agrostis capillaris, Calamagrostis arundinaceae, Deschampsia flexuosa, Festuca ovina, Epilobioum angustifoliumPteridium aquillinum