Correcting stem deformities in juvenile planted white spruce

corrected? Would those trees that are
currently free of defects remain well
formed into the future?
In the fall of 1998 a trial was set up to
determine whether or not there is anything
to be gained by manually correcting
multileadering and forkingdefects in young
planted white spruce. The following is a
status report on the defect correction trial,
two years post establishment.
METHODS
Forthe purposes of this trial, multileadering
refers to a situation in which the tree's
current leader or bud is missing, dead or
damaged, and two or more lateral shoots
are competing for crown dominance.
Forking refers to a situation in which
multileadering last year, or in some
previous year, has resulted in the
development of two separate and
competing tops. Generally, multileadering
gives rise to forking. In this study, trees that
fork at or below ground level are not
considered to be forked.
The trial was incorporated into two small
plantations, both of them active research
trials being maintained and monitored by
the Silviculture and Research Section of the
Newfoundland Forest Service. The first trial
site is located on Corner Brook Pulp and
Paper Ltd. (CBPPL) licensed land at Bottom
Brook in Forest Management District (FMD)
14, approximately 25 km due east of
Stephenville. This planting trial was
established in the spring of 1993 with 67-
multipot container and 2 + 2 bareroot white
spruce seedlings. The objective was to
investigate seedling growth response to
various planting technique/site preparation
options. In the fall of 2000 the plantation
was eight years old.
The second trial site is located on CBPPL
licensed land at South Branch in FMD 14,
approximately 6 km northeast of the
community of Coal Brook. This planting
trial was established in the spring of 1992
to assess the response of 67-multipot
container white spruce to various root
system management regimes. In the fall of
2000 this plantation was nine years old.
At each site, assessors flagged all forked
and multileadered trees. Half the trees of
each defect type were corrected with
pruning shears. That is, shears were used to
remove all but the strongest leader (in the
case of multileadered trees) or all but the
strongest top (in the case of forked trees).
The remaining trees were left uncorrected.
Additionally, naturally well formed trees
were selected as controls. As described in
Table 1, this resulted in the creation of five
stem form categories. Every attempt was
made to balance the selections so that the
trees in each of the five form classes came
from comparable situations. In total, 538
trees are represented in the trial.
The heights of all sample trees were
measured at the time of trial establishment.
and again in the fall of 2000. As well,
during the fall 2000 assessment, the stem
form
status of each tree was evaluated.
NEWFOUNDLAND FOREST SERVICE