The Efficiency of Creating Scots Pine Crops in Dry Steppe

In the context of climate aridisation and high anthropogenic load on forest plantations, it is necessary to improve the reforestation system taking into account the production experience. The aim of the study has been to evaluate the growth and survival of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) crops created from 2014 to 2018 using planting material with open and closed root systems on a large-scale burnt area from 2010. The research has been conducted in the Klyuchevsky Forestry of the Altai Territory. 9 rectangular sample plots of at least 0.25 ha in size have been established. The reliability of differences in the average survival rate of forest crops formed from 2 types of planting material has been determined using the Mann-Whitney U-test. To assess the variability of forest crop survival, the Fisher criterion (F-test) has been used. The location and inventory characteristics of 5–9-year-old forest crops, current height increment values of pine trees, as well as graphs of the growth rate in height of self-seeding and pine crops have been given. It has been established that the average survival rate in 3 out of 4 forest crop plots obtained from seedlings with an open root system is higher than that of forest crops created from planting material with a closed root system. This is due to better weather conditions in the first 4–5 years of growth of forest crops from seedlings with an open root system. Trees grown from seedlings with an open root system are inferior in average height to trees of natural origin in the first 5–7 years after planting, but by the age of 9 years they are catching up with the latter in this indicator. Based on the conducted research, it is recommended to increase the planting density of seedlings with a closed root system to 4–6 thousand pcs/ha in dry steppe conditions. This research can be continued in the following directions: studying a larger number of forest crop plots planted in different years under different weather conditions, as well as observing morphological differences in trees formed from seedlings with open and closed root systems. The results obtained can be useful in designing forest crops and developing regional recommendations for reforestation in the Altai-Novosibirsk area of forest-steppes and ribbon forests.