Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Oak is a tree specie with fine, high valued wood and thereby timber of oak has high
economical value. One drawback of growing oak is the expensive establishment cost due
to high seedlings price. Establishing and growing oak in mixed stands could be a solution
for this problem. Another problem with oak management is a quality of oak trees as it
could be easily reduced due to e.g. crooks, epicormic branches, forks (double stems).
Different mixtures will influence the possibilities to get oak trees with high quality. This
study was carried out in the 16 years old plantations in Snogeholm study area in southern
Sweden. Oak is growing in monoculture and in mixture with different tree species in this
area. The oak specie is Pedunculate oak (Quercus Robur) for all stands except one
monoculture plantation with Sessile oak (Quercus Petraea). There were studied 10
different planting methods where oak was growing together with spruce in different
arrangements, beech, lime and birch. It was found that it worth to plant oaks in mixture
with conifers, the best solution is to plant oak in mixture with spruce in groups. Mixtures
will provide higher total volume than in monoculture and better crop oaks quality. Mixture
of oak with beech gave the lowest quality for oak.