fertiliser

Seedlings of five native tussock species grown in the glasshouse on mountain subsoil showed outstanding responses to nitrogen and phosphorus fertiliser in combination. The most vigorous species was silver tussock but this produced less dry matter than an introduced grass, Yorkshire fog, grown on the same soil. Tussocks in general responded positively to applications of magnesium and potassium but growth was depressed by lime.

We examine the height growth, diameter growth and below-ground allocation responses of mountain beech (Nothofagus solandri var. cliffortioides) seedlings to the experimental removal of root competition through root trenching and the addition of fertiliser within relatively intact-canopied mountain beech forest in the Craigieburn Range, Canterbury. Trenching and trenching combined with fertiliser increased relative height and diameter growth of mountain beech seedlings above that of controls.

Fire occurs relatively frequently in beech (Nothofagus) forest in drought prone eastern areas of the South Island, New Zealand. Because beech is poorly adapted to fire, and is slow to regenerate, forest is normally replaced by scrub or grassland. Seeding was investigated as a means of restoring mountain beech (N. solandri var. cliffortioides) forest after fire destroyed 300 ha of forest at Mt. Thomas, Canterbury, in 1980.