2016

It's time to wake up the seedlings

In the warm sunlight all living creatures, as well as plants and trees start to wake up from winter hibernation. Forest seedlings, which last year were prepared for winter sleep in JSC "Latvia’s State Forests" (LVM) unit "LVM Sēklas un stādi" (LVM Seeds and Plants) nurseries, are now brought outside and prepared for being planted in the forest. It's time for them to wake up and start their own life - in the forest!

To provide customers with the necessary amount of seedlings for spring reforestation works, as well as to protect the good quality forest seedlings from winter thaws and bare frost, in LVM major nurseries in Strenči, Mazsili and Podiņi already in late autumn the seedlings are placed in special cold storage chambers at the temperature of -4°C. As it is getting warmer, the seedlings are taken out of the freezers and woken up for spring. 20.6 million seedlings were sorted and placed in the freezers for the spring season of 2016.

In March the storage temperature in the freezers is gradually reduced, but complete defrosting of seedlings is carried out in a special shed where the right external air temperature is ensured, and boxes with seedlings can be placed separately. With the help of nursery freezers the planting season can be extended from early April to the beginning of June, a small share of seedlings are stored even until midsummer.

Before the seedlings are planted in the forest, one has to make sure that they are completely thawed, to ensure that they can grow in the new environment as well as possible. "It should be remembered that frosted seedlings should not be planted, because when in the forest soil, the upper part of the seedling is in the sun and wants to grow; however, since the root is not yet thawed, the necessary circulation of nutrients cannot be ensured. In such situation, the upper part of a seedling rapidly turns brown and dries out," says Laima Zvejniece, Deputy Director of "LVM Sēklas un stādi" nurseries.

Meanwhile in the nursery greenhouses the new harvest seeds are being germinated. In four months the small seeds will already have turned into 10 to 15 centimetres tall seedlings. Then it is the time for the seedlings to be planted on the field or "schooled" in the wind and in the sun, to get used to the living conditions in nature. Being taken good care of by LVM employees, they will gain force and grow taller, so that once they are fully grown in the nursery, they are ready for the real life in the forest.