Vol. 73 No: 3

Title:
Effects of Clovers as Vegetative Ground Cover on the Growth of Red Birch in Nursery Field Production

Author:
KAARINA S. HÄNNINEN

pp: 393-398

Abstract:
Various clover species were evaluated as vegetative ground covers in nursery field production of micropropagated red birch (Betula pubescens Ehrh. f. rubra Ulvinen) in two experiments each of two years' duration. The clover species and cultivars were Trifolium pratense L. ‘Bjursele’, T. repens L. ‘Jogeva’, T. repens L. ‘Sonja’, T. hybridum L. ‘Frida’, T. incarnatum L. ‘Opolska’, T. resupinatum L. and T. subterraneum L. One treatment was grass sod Festuca rubra L. ‘Ensylva’ and as control coverless ground, kept weed free by hand hoeing. Stem diameter, stem height, leaf area and leaf size were all reduced in the perennial clover plots and grass. The annual clovers, T incarnatum, T resupinatum and T. subterraneum, proved to be noncompetitive with the trees. Because of its low growing habit, T. subterraneum seems to be the most suitable of the tested clovers as a ground cover crop.

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