%0 Research Notes %T An experiment comparing different afforestation methods in peatlands %A Mannerkoski, Hannu %D 1978 %J Suo - Mires and peat %V 29 %N 2 %U http://suo.fi/article/9475 %X The article presents results of an experiment in which different sowing and planting methods were compared. The experi-ment was carried out in two experimental areas in Central Finland, the Lylynsuo and the Nuijaneva. The Lylynsuo area has been drained in 1969 and its pre-drainage peatland site type was an ordinary sedge bog. The Nuijaneva area has been drained in 1963 and its site type was a small-sedge bog. The experimental layout was the same in both areas: four planting and four sowing methods on five blocks. An experimental unit consisted of a pair of rows with 100 transplants or sowing spots. The methods used were. 1. Planting on intact peat surface 2. Planting on top of the furrow ridge made by a reforestation plow (see Fig. 1) 3. Planting on the side of the ridge nearest to the furrow 4. Planting on the other side of the ridge 5. Sowing on intact peat surface 6. Sowing on a 50 x 50 cm2 spot, from where the living moss had been removed 7. Sowing on a foot-pressed spot, on chopped peat spread out with Kopo spiral trencher 8. Sowing with sowing machine (see Fig. 2). The afforestation was made with Scots pine in the spring 1969. After planting and sowing, spot fertilization (30 g/trans- plant or sowing spot) was applied with compound fertilizer (15 % N, 25 % P2O5, 10 % K2O). Living transplants and sowing spots with seedlings were counted in the autumn 1969, in the spring 1970, in the autumn 1971, and in the autumn 1974. The height and the height growth of the transplants and seedlings were measured in 1971 and 1974, the height of the seed-lings in the machine-sown group only in 1971. The results are presented in the Figures 3— 5. Planting was successful with all the methods applied, with no significant differences between the methods. Sowing succeeded better in the Nuijaneva area than in the Lylynsuo. As can be seen, the results of sowing correlate with the competition from the surface vegetation, which is greater in the Lylynsuo area. The transplants were significantly higher and their height growth greater in the three turf planting methods (2—4) than in the method of planting on intact peat surface. Height growth of seedlings was the best on the chopped peat (method 7) and the poorest on the intact surface. Results from the two experimental areas are quite similar. Taking into account the age diffe-rence of the seedlings and the transplants, the seedlings are either growing almost as well as the transplants or are only a year or two behind in development.