Korean Nut Pine (Pinus koraiensis) - plot 82

20 seedlings were planted on the Borthwick ridge in 1978 by the OMNR on a grid with 3 m spacing. By spring 1999, 18 trees survived. 1 was broken off in the ice storm and had not recovered, 1 had recovered from a broken top with four forks, 4 had two forks. About half have been producing a moderate crop of nuts for ten years; 2000 is by a considerable margin the best crop so far.

The broken-off tree was removed to improve the growth of the remaining trees, and the almost dead fork of the quadruply-forked tree was removed in an attempt to repair it. One fork has been removed from one of the duple-fork trees. Further studies will be done over the next few years on their nut production. A north-south gradient needs to be investigated, and there is a question as to whether or not multistem growth improves cone productivity.

John Sankey