Editing Plant nursery (section)

==Conditioning==

With the objective of fitting planting stock more able to withstand stresses after outplanting, various nursery treatments have been attempted or developed and applied to nursery stock. Buse and Day (1989),<ref name="buse">Buse, L.J.; Day, R.J. 1989. Conditioning three boreal conifers by root pruning and wrenching. USDA, For. Serv., Tree Plant. Notes 40(2):33–39.</ref> for instance, studied the effect of conditioning of white spruce and [[Picea mariana|black spruce]] transplants on their morphology, physiology, and subsequent performance after outplanting. Root pruning, wrenching, and [[Fertilizer|fertilization]] with potassium at 375&nbsp;kg/ha were the treatments applied. Root pruning and wrenching modified stock in the nursery by decreasing height, root collar diameter, shoot:root ratio, and bud size, but did not improve survival or growth after planting. Fertilization reduced root growth in black spruce but not of white spruce.