Abstract
Haiti, a country who’s land mass was at one time covered by 60% forests has suffered great losses from deforestation, with less than 2% of its forests surviving today. Current reforestation efforts in Haiti focus on seedling quantity rather than quality. Working with partners in Kenscoff, Haiti, we developed a study to determine some of the factors limiting the ability to produce high-quality seedlings in the nursery. Using the endemic Hispaniolan pine (Pinus occidentalis) as a model species, there were two general objectives of this study. The first objective was to explore the possibility of producing high quality seedlings utilizing economically feasible nursery practices.
More specifically, container type and growing media were evaluated for influence on seedling physiological and morphological parameters. The second objective was to examine the post-transplant effect of growing media on seedling growth and photosynthesis through drought and non-drought simulated field conditions. Results indicate that Pinus occidentalis had greatest overall growth in compost-based media types but that germination of this species was greatest in peat-based media. Following transplantation media type had less influence on seedling growth and photosynthesis. Suggesting that nursery cultural practices were less influential once seedlings were outplanted. Seedlings during this phase were affected more by irrigation treatments. Over time, drought treated seedlings showed significant declines in photosynthesis and had overall lower growth than those irrigated regularly.