Forest crops: types, planting and care, tillage and cultivation

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

Forest zones are a cover of the earth, including various plants, animals, microorganisms. Forests play an important role in human life. They maintain the balance of oxygen in the atmosphere, preserve the fauna, and help reduce wind gusts. In connection with the consumption of wood in various areas of production, as well as natural disasters and fires, forests are destroyed. Therefore, it is necessary to engage in the restoration and conservation of forest cultures. This process lasts for several years, so errors in sowing, planting, and care should not be allowed. Correcting them is a very long and laborious task, and sometimes impossible.

The concept of artificial plantations

Forest crops are called forests planted by man. The word "culture" refers to forest plantations artificially created by people. Moreover, wild species of trees are used. Areas planted with plants are called silvicultural areas. They, in turn, are divided into forest (cutting areas, wastelands) and non-forest (pastures, hayfields, ravines, sandy areas). By planting forest crops, destroyed forests are renewed or new zones are erected. The purpose of planting trees is the extraction of timber, the cultivation of fruits, the landscaping of urban areas, and land reclamation. Tree plantations should be no less resistant to climate change, environmental conditions, diseases compared to biological forests. High resistance is observed in mixed stands. Therefore, they try to plant several varieties of forest crops in one zone.

Types of plantations

Forest belts, depending on the task, are divided into decorative, restorative, or sub-canopy, and environmental protection. The landscape is decorated with groups of ornamental plants, using high and low species, as well as combining types of forest crops with different deciduous colors. Such groups are located near reservoirs, ponds, along road forks, in glades.

Restorative crops, in turn, are divided into preliminary ones, which are grown on the site of cut down overmature trees and begin to be sown 3-10 years before cleaning the marked area, substory ones, which are planted under the canopy of those crops where there is no viability of young shoots, and subsequent - they are planted in areas of deforestation or places with a lack of natural natural renewal.

Protection plantations include water protection crops,located along streams, ponds, along the slopes of rivers, reservoirs and regulating the water level, as well as soil-protective and noise-protective forest belts that perform the function of protecting and maintaining the environment.

Compositions of landings

For the formation of new forest belts, plantings are divided into partial crops and continuous.

Solid planting of forest crops is carried out evenly throughout the selected silvicultural zone. Partial plantings are placed in areas without natural growth of the main breed, also to increase the volume and improve the biological composition.

Depending on the composition of crops, the zones are divided into pure and mixed. Pure forest plantations contain one species of trees or bushes. They are planted in areas with poor, dry, sandy soil. As a rule, pines are bred in such zones. Forest crops of one species have a special purpose, for example, for the manufacture of paper.

Mixed crops consist of different types of plants planted in two or three tiers. Light-loving plants are planted in the main strip, neighboring tiers are filled with shade-tolerant rocks. Often an accompanying species is linden, which in the deciduous zone can go into 1 tier.

Purpose of forest plantations

Artificially created plantings must fulfill the tasks for which they are grown. In connection with the appointment, a selection of various breeds, combined with each other, is carried out to form the desired structure from plants. The complexity of the selection lies in the fact that not onlytheir purpose, but also biological stability. The task will be completed if the plantations have the appropriate properties. For example, shrubs serve as stable fences, but will not protect against strong gusts of wind. Plantation strips of ash or elm are unstable and short-lived. This means that they can not perform their functions for long. Oak forest belt is effective in land reclamation processes.

Stages of creating forestry production

Greening of individual areas is carried out after various surveys are carried out and design decisions are made.

At the first stage, information on the state of the forest fund is collected. The territory for planting is surveyed, the soil, climatic and biological conditions of the zone are determined. Target tasks of forest crops are set. Then a planting project is developed and approved.

At the second stage, the soil is prepared and cultivated on the allocated areas. The entire sowing zone is being surveyed, working corridors are being marked, mechanized work is being carried out: stumps are uprooted, vegetation is removed. These processes are carried out a year before sowing or planting tree species. Further, in the spring or in the autumn, plants are planted. The results are evaluated at the time of planting acceptance. If necessary, they are supplemented in the process of growing forest crops. Care depends on the initial preparation of the zones, tillage, tree species, assessment of the survival rate of sprouts.

At the third stage, planted areastransferred to forest-covered lands. This is determined by the qualitative indicators of the growth of trees and their condition.

Soil preparation

Treatment of land prepared for planting trees and shrubs of various species is a very important factor in the landscaping of territories. The purpose of these works is to provide plants with favorable conditions during their growth. Tillage for forest crops can be done mechanically or chemically.

Mechanical tillage is carried out with the help of special machines, affecting the natural soil cover. Partial cultivation of the land is carried out in those areas where it is impossible to cultivate the land in a continuous way. These are areas overgrown with shrubs or young shoots, areas not uprooted after cutting down, steep slopes, as well as areas with high soil moisture in need of drainage work. Seating places are processed along furrows, along strips, along terraces.

Sowing and planting

To sow plants, much more seed is needed than to plant a forest zone. Seeds do not take root well, and germinated crops are more likely to suffer from fungal spores than others. Therefore, sowing is rational where the seeds will not die from soaking, as well as from lack of water and will not be drowned out by grass. The strongest seeds are in crops such as walnut, oak, almonds. Therefore, they are sown more often than others. Pine seeds are distributed in areas with coniferous or mixed crops. To create a forest, scatter oraerial seeding method. In difficult areas where mechanical tillage is not possible, crops are spread by planters with 20 seeds per plot with dimensions of 50 × 50 cm, maintaining a distance of 1.2 m. As a result, 0.5 kg of seeds need to be sown per 1 hectare of land.

Forest care

Care is understood as providing plants with favorable conditions conducive to the survival and growth of seedlings, as well as the establishment of the root system. The end of the plant care period is considered to be the time when trees are transferred to forested areas.

Plants in the completed state are well-formed, dense young growth with stable wood, corresponding to the established tasks.

Cultural care

Good conditions for seedlings and growth of trees are achieved by carrying out agrotechnical care, which allows changing the water and heat supply, the mode of nutrition of the earth, the microclimate of the environment and atmosphere. This care is necessary to prevent the negative impact of new shoots formed naturally.

Agricultural works are:

• Restoration or replenishment of seedlings after damage to plants by frost, blown out of the soil by winds or falling asleep with sand, erosion by rain or groundwater.
• Destruction of self-seeding of unwanted species, removal of root shoots, as well as cultivation and clearing of soil in strips, terraces and furrows.
• Slope of seed-displacing grass.
• Spread toground surface and over vegetation of herbicide mixtures.

The first treatment is carried out in early spring, before weeds appear. Subsequently, it is necessary to remove the vegetation growing after the first care. An important period of work is the time when weeds grow intensively along with crops.

Agrotechnical care of crops promotes aeration of the topsoil, improves the absorption of precipitation, prevents increased evaporation of moisture, and also removes competitors fighting for light and food. This care is carried out before the forest crops close in crowns in rows or become significantly higher than the grass cover of the soil.