The Open-Ground and Container-Raised Indigenous Plants Comparison is a Sustainable Farming Fund project.

Part of the Mahurangi Initiative: A hope-based
network restoring and enjoying the Mahurangi.

Cimino 8 March 2010

Spreading a Dollar Further: Adjusted to the provisional price paid for open-ground plants, and for survival, neither the more expensive but better surviving planter bag or pot, nor the cheaper but poorer surviving root trainer plants covered nearly as much ground.
Bar chart (unreviewed) Cimino Cole

Open-ground seedlings are more economic to establish.

This is the overall finding of the open-ground and container-raised indigenous plants comparison conducted in the Mahurangi and Örewa catchments.

This Sustainable Farming Fund project sought to compare the establishment performance and economics of plants raised by three nursery methods:

• 1 open-ground
• 2 planter bag or pot
• 3 Hillson-sized root trainer.

The open-ground method is universally used by the forestry industry, while container methods are used by garden and indigenous plant nurseries.

The comparison demonstrates that there is no inherent need for indigenous species to be raised in containers. The only marked difference in establishment performance with Hillson-sized root trainer plants, which being smaller were subject to smothering by competing plants and to browsing.

Economically, the open-ground plants greatly out-performed both root trainer and potted (or planter bag) plants. However, this is based on the somewhat nominal price charged for the open-ground plants

• Open-ground $1.50
• Planter bag or potted (PB3-sized) $2.50
• Root trainer  (Hillson-sized) $1.25

It is reasonable to expect that some open-ground –raised indigenous species, particularly any that can be grown from seed without a plug phase, can be produced at a cost somewhat closer to the $0.30 charged for high quality radiata pine seedlings.

For the Mahurangi Harbour to be restored to anything like its pre-deforestation state, millions of trees need to be established.

For Aotearoa to act adequately on climate, millions of hectares of trees need to be established.

Only by adopting large-scale methods, such as open-ground nurseries, can indigenous species form a significant part of this new forest.



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Final section Appendix: The Data

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