Effect of root severance on growth of field-grown sugar maple
1998
Harris, J.R. | Knight, P. | Fanelli, J.
This study addresses the growth limits imposed on large landscape trees by root severance at harvest and tests the effect of rootball size on stress following root severance. Two rootball sizes and a nontreated control treatment were randomly assigned to Acer saccharum Marsh. (sugar maple) trees in four adjacent nursery rows at Waynesboro Nurseries, near Waynesboro, Va. One rootball size (75 cm in diameter) corresponded to the American Association of Nurserymen standards, and the other was 90 cm in diameter. Trees were dug with intact rootballs before bud swell. Height growth of root-severed trees was 19%, trunk diameter increase 10%, and twig extension 18% of control trees 2 years after root severance. Total stem nonstructural carbohydrate content was higher on controls than on root-severed trees. Leaf nitrogen content was greater for root-severed trees, presumably due to lack of a dilution effect. Although growth was severely curtailed by root severance, no effect on growth or measured plant stress indicators resulted from the use of a 90-cm vs. a 75-cm-diameter rootball.
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