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Cone harvest has begun in spruce seed plantations

Cone harvest has started in the spruce seed plantations established by JSC “Latvia’s State Forests” (LVM). The first harvested cones from the Latgale seed breeding station have already been delivered to the dryer, and in total, it is planned to harvest around 560 hectoliters of cones to extract the highest-quality spruce seeds.

The first seed cones of the year were harvested from the Šarlote spruce seed plantation in Latgale which was established in 2005. On average, the spruce trees here have reached the height of 3-4 meters, the tallest - already 5 -6 meters. This is the second significant cone harvest since the foundation of the plantation.

“This year, the Latgale region has great harvest forecasts. In this region, it is particularly important to harvest a sufficient amount of seeds to ensure not only the resource for seedling production but also to supply the seed bank. If the seed shedding amount is similar to one of the previous years, the planned 500 hectoliters will provide around 300 kilograms of spruce seeds. Seed cones are collected by cutting the branches full of cones. All harvested seeds are reviewed in the Forest research station laboratory and certified in accordance with the results. Ever since we started collecting spruce cones, the quality of the seeds has been consistently very high,” explains LVM seed production manager Justs Lūkins.

Usually, the spruce cones are collected from October to March. On the contrary to the pine trees, the spruce has a particular production period - spruce in a forest or a designated plantation can not produce the cones for up to 11 years.

Photo: Spruce cone harvesting process

In Latvia, there are three seed usage zones. In the Western zone, the seeds acquired there can be used for forest restoration only in this particular area, and the reserve in the seed bank is sufficient. Meanwhile, the seeds harvested in the Eastern zone, which includes the counties of Balvi, Ludza, and Rēzekne, can be used in the whole territory of Latvia. Therefore, it is necessary to significantly increase the seed reserve in this region. It is expected that approximately 80% of this year’s total amount will be collected in the Eastern and Central zone.

Over its 25 years of operations, LVM has created eight spruce seed plantations from scratch in various regions in Latvia in order to ensure the necessary seed amount for plant production and seed bank maintenance.