Merchantable wood volume response of P. radiate D. Don post thinned plots on coated and uncoated urea fertilizers

Abstract

The basal area increment in silviculture is impacted by early growth achieved due to appropriate plantation, thinning and nutrition (Moulinier et al., 2015). In this regard, we had considered to conduct our study on radiata pine (Pinus radiata D. Don). The P. radiata D. Donrotation lasts for up to 40 years, and are thinned 3 to 5 times typically in South Australia (Jeong, 2017). A general policy of Forestry in South Australia has been to apply fertilizer one to two years after thinning so as to improve the productivity of P. radiata D. Don (Woollons, 1985, Gavran & Parsons, 2011). The current study Site 'A' at Mount Gambier is a part of the ‘Green Triangle’ that has P. radiata D. Don plantations (O' Hehir & Nambiar, 2010). The overall aim was to test the two types of coated and slow release forms of DAP Urea fertiliser against the standard DAP Urea fertiliser used by Forestry SA for their impact on growth as a post thinning fertilizer application. The measurement of impact of fertilizer was done on the basis of merchantable wood volume produced on each plot treated with a particular fertilizer. Certain coated fertilizers are recently available in the market, but their effectiveness in the local climatic range is yet to be ascertained, and the present analysis is expected to answer it to some extent. Merchantable wood volume response of P. radiata D. Don post thinned plots on coated and uncoated urea fertilizers