Fertilization practice in Finnish forest nurseries from the standpoint of environmental impact

In 1996 a questionnaire concerning actualsystems and practices used in production ofseedlings was sent to 33 Finnish forestnurseries. A total of 28 nurseries answered thequestionnaire. These replies represented about80% of the total production of forestseedlings in Finland. The nurseries used about200 metric tons of fertilizers in 1996, whichwas about 25% of the fertilizer use in 1976.Explanations for the decrease in fertilizationare the shift from bareroot production tocontainer production and the decrease in totalproduction from 190 to 150 million seedlings.Finnish nurseries applied about 100 mg N and50 mg P per container seedling shipped, and820 mg N and 240 mg P per bareroot seedling.The mean annual applications of N and P in 1996were about 180 kg/ha and 90 kg/ha for containerstock and 130 kg N/ha and 40 kg P/ha forbareroot stock. However, the variation betweennurseries was large.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]