Does propagation method impact survival and growth of below grade planted trees?

2010 | Michael Arnold, Texas A&M University

We are just beginning to understand the importance of planting depth in successful establishment of landscape trees in suburban and urban environments.  This process may be complicated by the fact that an increasing number of species of trees are being propagated clonally from rooted conventional stem cuttings or tissue cultured plantlets, rather than seeds, to achieve uniformity in mass production settings or in landscape designs.  Since stem tissues are not often exposed to conditions of hypoxia (low oxygen), which is more common with root tissues, does the inclusion of a greater section of stem tissues below ground due to cutting propagation result in a more adverse response to below grade planting than would be seen with seed propagated trees?

Year: 2010

Funding Duration: 1-3 years

Grant Program: John Z Duling

Grant Title: Does Propagation Method Impact Survival and Growth of Below Grade Planted Trees?

Researcher: Mike Arnold

Key words: clonal growth; seed propagation; stem cutting

Peer Reviewed Publications from Grant: none

General Audience/Trade Publications: none

Presentations: none

For more information on this project, contact the researcher via TREE Fund at treefund@treefund.org.