sdu faculty of forestry journal special edition 2009 - Orman Fakültesi

1. INTRODUCTION
SDÜ Faculty of Forestry Journal
Since the early 1980s shoot blight by Sirococcus conigenus (DC.) P. Cannon &
Minter has caused severe damage on Norway spruce (Picea abies [L.] Karst.) in
some parts of Austria (Fig. 1). Previous studies revealed insufficient Mg and Ca
supply, enhanced N/Mg and N/Ca-ratios in the needles of severely diseased trees
(Anglberger et al., 2003) and demonstrated that application of appropriate
fertilizers mitigated disease severity and promoted tree recovery (Halmschlager et
al., 2007). The present study was carried out in the same individual-treefertilization
experiment and aimed to investigate the effect of Sirococcus shoot
blight on growth of mature Norway spruce (for further details see: Huber et al.,
2009).
Figure 1. Severely affected mature Norway spruce.
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