Survival Rates and Initial Growth of Japanese Cedar and Hinoki Cypress Saplings in Experimental Plots Aimed at Low-cost Silviculture

Abstract

11 (2019) Survival Rates and Initial Growth of Japanese Cedar and Hinoki Cypress Saplings in Experimental Plots Aimed at Low-cost Silviculture. J Jpn For Soc 101: 94⊖98 To explore adaptive sapling types, with the goal of low-cost silviculture, we examined survival rates and growth in height of Japanese cedar and hinoki cypress saplings for five years (partly four years) at 13 sites in Japan. We tested normal bare-rooted saplings, large bare-rooted saplings (height＞60 cm), and saplings grown in multi-cavity containers, vinyl pods and ceramic pipes. All the saplings originated from seedling or cutting. As for Japanese cedar, the large bare-rooted saplings originating from seedling showed the greatest growth in height among all sapling types, and the saplings from seedling showed significantly greater growth in height than the saplings from cutting. The hinoki ceramic-pipe sapling showed a significantly lower survival rate than all sapling types and less growth in height than the normal bare-rooted hinoki cypress saplings. The GLMM analyses for Japanese cedar showed that the height growth rate of the saplings was affected by the frequency of weeding, the sapling type (bare-rooted, multi-cavity container or pod) , and their origin (seedling or cutting). Our results suggest that large bare-rooted saplings of Japanese cedar may contribute to reducing the cost of reforestation; however, it has specific requirements, such the vicinity of roads for their installation.