| Summary: | Swedish forest takes up and stores 60 million tons of CO2 every year. Which is a great climate benefit. Fertilization of forest results in a growth increase beacuse of the added nutrients supplied to the trees. This leads to an increased amount of needles that can produce a higher photosynthesis. The purpose of this report has been to examine the possibility of growth increase of norway spruce (Picea abies) with frequency fertilization in young stands. Earlier studies have shown that this is an efficient way to increase the stemwood production. The study has one hypothes, the growth increase in frequency fertilized young stands results in a yearly growth increase of 10 m3 per hectare compared to unfertilized stands. The material of this study is prepared from assessments from trials in Tranemo and Toftaholm in southern Sweden. The results have been compared to data from earlier assessments in the trial stands. Tranemo and Toftaholm is fertilized six times since 2003. The fertilizer dose is optimized after a needle analysis before every fertilizing occasion. The results show that the volume, diameter, basal area and individual stem volume is higher in the fertilized areas than in the unfertilized areas for both Toftaholm and Tranemo. The growth increase at the fertilized areas has increased significant compared with the unfertilized areas. The growth increase at the fertilized areas is 24-25m3 per hectare and year. The growth increase at the unfertilized areas is about 15m3 per hectare and year. Fertilization of young stands results in a high growth and shortens the rotation period considerably, the trees reach higher dimensions in shorter time. This study indicates that the number of stems per hectare has an impact on the growth increase in fertilized stands.
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