Virginia Evergreen Summer 2018

were sold out and these included white pine, scotch pine, red pine, blue spruce and Black Hills spruce. Smaller is better in most cases since the root system is not too intense. I have used these smaller sizes to pot into a one gal- lon nursery pot and grow out a year and then plant in the fall or sell to other growers looking for plant material. Species of Rooted Cuttings Some growers in Virginia and more so in North Carolina and southward use Leyland cypress and Arizona cypress ‘Blue Ice’ to use in their field inventory. These two types are treated differently than the pine, fir and spruce spe- cies. They are not cone bearing which means no seed, but are rooted cuttings mainly produced by propagation nurseries in the South. These are not readily avail- able since the nursery and land- scape industry uses them for com- mercial and residential land- scapes. Fortunately I have direct contact with these nurseries since I am in this industry to buy and sell woody ornamentals for my own business. Most of us knew and remembered Bill Murray and his wife from Georgia who came to many of the VCTGA annual meetings over the years. It was through Bill’s efforts to produce a Leyland cypress dif- ferent from the common Leighton Green variety. He produced a Leyland that I embraced due to a different foliar texture and a more open tree than the Leighton Green. Bill told me that his variety was not prone to foliar diseases such as cercosporidium . Person- ally, I never had great success sell- ing a Leyland prior to growing the

P+2; and P+3. Size can be equated as 8-14 inch to 12-22 inch. These have been lifted and transplanted from line out beds as evidenced of trimmed roots and a bit more branched. My observation over the recent years is the larger plant material sells out before the ship- ping season begins. When one becomes a grower and becomes an association member, nurseries sometimes receives a members list and this is where they mail their price lists or cata- logs to so they can get your poten- tial business. It may tempting to order the larger seedlings if one is a new grower. The larger 15-24 inch or larger may be unsuitable for Christmas trees due to the fact these may be too leggy. Norway and White spruce can fall into this category since these are probably better suited for reforestation planting in the North. However, if there is good lateral branching these larger sizes may be accepta- ble to trim into a marketable tree in a shorter time frame. Pines such as red, white and Scotch can be 2- 3 which can equate into a 24-36 inch plant. Here again these may be too large and leggy for Christ- mas tree use. I ordered a few Scotch pine in the 10-16 inch range. These were nice trees but had no lateral branching, only a thick straight stem with a good, fat bud set. At least no basal pruning will be needed, being tall, straight seedlings. Most fir, pine and spruce species will be ordered and sold as 2-0 to 3-0’s. When I ordered in late 2017 I already found out the larger sizes available were sold out such as Canaan fir. I also saw the smaller 2-0, 4-8 inch to 6-14 inch sizes

Order Your Plants Early! By Tommy Naylor

In view of the predicted tree seed- ling shortage over the past year, it seems the shortage is offset pro- vided the grower places his or her order well in advance. Shortages were apparent depending upon the growers need in certain sizes this year. For example, Canaan fir seemed in short supply or none available at most nurseries. For years, we as growers ordered 2-0 seedlings because they were more common and plentiful and we mainly purchased them from our state forestry nurseries. Now- adays, conifer nurseries in Michi- gan and Pennsylvania offers tree sizes regarded as AGE and SIZE from 2-0 or 4-8” to 3-1 or 10-16 inch and some up to 15-24” which at this point can become a heavy transplant if it is heavily branched laterally and heavily rooted. Plugs are treated differently than seed- lings which are graded as P+1;

VCTGA News Journal Summer 2018 VCTGA News Journal –Summer 2018  

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