Compost Utilization for Management of Wood Residuals and Improved Forest Plantation Establishment in Alberta

摘要

Utilization of wood residuals from milling is an ongoing challenge for the forest industry. Composting and compost utilization hold promise as a management option but empirical information on benefits and costs is required before the practice will beadopted. Survival and growth of coniferous seedlings following soil amendment with wood-based compost was evaluated in the greenhouse and in degraded and non-degraded field sites. Also, the potential for development of disease suppressive compost from conifer bark was evaluated in a laboratory bioassay. Wood-based compost significantly improved seedling survival on the degraded field site, but was associated with reduced height growth of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl.) in the greenhouse. Compostprepared from conifer bark (mostly lodgepole pine) suppressed dampingoff by Rhizoctonia solani Kühn. Improved tree survival as a result of compost application in the field is believed to have resulted from a physical improvement to soil conditions, while reduced height growth in the greenhouse is believed to have resulted from N immobilization in compost. The operational costs of a large scale composting and compost utilization program are prohibitive in most cases, except for areas requiring intensive treatment and/or for the development of special products for disease suppression.