Newton Nursery 1981 Forest Research Station
Photographs courtesy of Alan Duncan, Newton Nursery.
Controlled pollination work being carried out at Newton Research Station on selected Sitka spruce and larch trees. Over many decades the very best specimen trees were identified within the natural crops and from these trees, cuttings collected, grown on root stock and planted out in seed orchards or clone banks. From these identified clones began the immense task of searching for the outstanding female/male combinations from amongst the thousands of permutations.
The photograph and the attached PDF shows how the green female cones (at this stage often referred to – incorrectly in strict botanical terms - as flowers before turning into mature cones) are being isolated in plastic tubes and special bags by Mike Phillips (Research Head Forester) before they can be fertilised naturally by any pollen from surrounding red coloured male cones (the cotton wool and the foam rubber discs seal the ends of covering bags and tubes). At a later point when the enclosed cones are ready to be fertilised the pollen from the male cones of other selected trees is introduced into the enclosed tubes and bags.
In the photograph showing a tree festooned with control bags and tubes it should be noted that the green female cones of this one tree would be crossed with the pollen from the male cones of many other selected trees. Hence a wide variation of closely identified crosses all of which would have to be individually further tested for growth, timber and tree characteristics by planting out in the field. A long hard slog!
The last image in the PDF shows the fertilisation process of larch female cones with pollen collected from male cones on selected larch trees. The pollen has been loaded into pollen gun syringe and once the needle has been inserted through the sponge end caps and placed near to the female cones the air bulb will be pressed gently to puff some pollen over the cones.
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Groups: Forest Nurseries, Forest Research, Forestry Areas, Forestry in Action