Importance of weed control, fertilization, irrigation, and genetics in slash and loblolly pine early growth on poorly drained spodosols

Influence of Irrigation, Soil and Weeding on Performance of Mediterranean Cypress Seedling in Nursery

“…In the current study, weeding and its interaction with soil and also with watering had a positive effect on shoot growth, a finding in line with Kolb and Steiner (1990) and Lorimer et al (1994). In contrast to Neary et al (1990), who illustrated that early growth of Pinus taeda and P. elliottii did not reduce with weed control; in our study weed control significantly affected growth, but no did seedling production. Weed control improved shoot growth where the watering interval was 20 days.…”

Managing Competition for Nutrients in Agro-Ecosystems

“…root length, density, surface area and diameter), rates of nutrient diffusion in the soil and uptake by plants, morphological and physiological plasticity, and spatial and temporal soil partitioning are the major factors determining the nutrient competitive ability of most plant nutrient competition (Gillespie 1989;Neary et al 1990;Smethurst and Comerford 1993). Generally, these factors have been used to predict nutrient uptake of competing plants as a function of the nutrient concentration in solution at the soil-root interface, which is determined by the balance between plant demand for nutrients and the ability of the soil to supply that demand.…”

“…Although Imo and Timmer (1997) have previously diagnosed these nutritional effects using vector competition analysis without linkage to availability of other resources required for growth, it is well-known that plant growth depends on acquisition, retention and use of multiple resources (carbon, water, nutrients and light) as illustrated in Figure 2 (Trenbath 1976). Carbon and nutrients are converted into biomass, while light and water are necessary for growth and other physiological processes (Salisbury and Ross 1992), often involving complex interactions among various resources (Neary et al 1990;Sands and Mulligan 1990;Woods et al 1992). Plant growth characteristics may also influence resource interactions, for example, due to trade-offs in carbon allocation between resource acquiring organs or greater growth rate and overall plant size.…”

Diagnosis & Correction of Soil Nutrient Limitations in Intensively managed southern pine forests

“…The beneficial effects of site preparation (Gent et al 1986, McKee andWilhite 1986) and the importance of understory competition control have similarly resulted in large increases in productivity, particularly during the first years of stand development (Nelson et al 1981, Colbert et al 1990, Neary et al 1990a, Britt et al 1990, Haywood et al 1997. Equally important have been the large and long-term growth responses associated with the application of various types and rates of fertilizers in both young and established stands (Pritchett and Comerford 1982, Colbert et al 1990, Neary et al 1990b, Jokela et al 1991, Albaugh et al 1998.…”

“…Despite these technological advances, various researchers have suggested that existing loblolly pine plantations are not growing at their biological potential (Farnum et al 1983, Rockwood and Chaves 1987, Neary et al 1990b. Low soil fertility, interspecific competition and pest losses, as well as significant water deficits on Piedmont soils, have been documented as important constraints to forest productivity (Neary et al 1990a, Allen et al 1990).…”