You may be wondering what it takes before starting a tree nursery. Don’t worry, we have you covered as we have outlined ways that ensures your nursery is ready for all the silvicultural operations. 

Tree nursery operations involve various activities such as seed sourcing, Seedbed preparation, Sowing seeds, Potting, Pricking Out, Shading, Watering, Weeding, root pruning, application of additional fertilizers or manure. They are basically the activities that take place during managing a tree nursery.

Establishing a tree nursery

A tree nursery is a place where tree seedlings are raised. Trees are raised in a nursery because:

1. A nursery increases survival chances of seedlings because they can be taken care of in the nursery-young trees are nurtured until mature enough to be moved to the field.
2. A nursery is also important for convenience reason, the seedlings can be planted at the desired time

Well, it is said by some that anything that has an advantage has some disadvantages. The disadvantages of having a tree nursery include:

1. It is expensive to start
2. It also requires a lot of labor.

Factors that influence location of a tree nursery

Where to site a nursery is an important issue to consider before starting because it influences the effort that will be required to maintain it, the way in which it will be managed, and the ease of access to users. Some of the factors to be considered in selecting the site for a nursery include the following:

• There should be a reliable supply of water, ideally being near a river or ponds, or where a water tank or a drum to store water is available
• The site should be accessible all year round so that customers are able to get seedlings easily, and so that nursery staff can manage plants and transport mature seedlings to planting sites and/or markets.
• The area should have a gentle topography; a very flat place will encourage waterlogging while a steep place will encourage soil erosion
• Good soils and other planting materials such as sand should be available easily
• The site should be protected from strong winds and from livestock and other animals.
• There should also be good security so that you do not lose your seedlings to thieves! Or even wildlife!

Factors that influence the size of a tree nursery

How big a nursery should depend on many different factors, of which the following are most important:

• The available space for establishing the nursery. The land available on farms may only be small in area, but more space may be available in public lands like schoolyards or church grounds
• Whether you will grow the seedlings in pots or in beds, and whether they will be raised from seed or from grafts, or from bare-rooted cuttings, etc. This will influence the amount of space each plant needs. Remember that in a nursery additional space is required for keeping collected soil, sand and manure, and for mixing these materials
• The numbers of seedlings to be raised for personal use and for sale. When considering the size of the market for seedlings, it is better to start by being conservative in estimating what your market will be
• The amount of water and other requirements that are available to maintain seedlings

 

Facilities and resources

When establishing a nursery, it is important to have somewhere to keep nursery tools safely and in good conditions. This does not have to be at the nursery itself, but could be in the house, school, church or other location. The basic tools needed for a nursery include hoes (jembes in Swahili), machetes (pangas in Swahili), shovels, empty tins with small holes in the bottom (to substitute for a watering can), and kitchen knives for root pruning. If resources allow, then proper watering cans, wheelbarrows, pruning knives, knife sharpeners, soil sieves, and shovels are also all useful. 

All in all, starting a tree nursery is a process that may require innovation. Do not postpone starting your nursery because you lack a few things. Get innovative and work with what you have. We surely need the trees!!

Every person who is a forestry student or enthusiast has come across the term silviculture. But, for some, defining silviculture has been challenging as it is confusing to separate it from forestry and silvics. We hope that this article will help in clearing that out.

Forestry is the study and management of forests. Good forestry programs make it possible for humans to get some economic value from forests without destroying the forests or trees. This way of using forests is referred to as sustainable forestry. In sustainable forestry, the effort is put to ensure that all the resources that are taken from the forest are replaced. Only old trees may be cut down allowing younger trees to grow and ensure continuity. Trees are also planted to replace the ones cut down.

Silviculture

Silviculture is the agriculture of trees, i.e., how to grow them, how to maximize growth and return, and how to control tree species compositions to meet landowner purpose for the trees.

The purpose can include anything from firewood, timber, paper, income, wildlife habitat, water quality, recreation, or any other values a forest is capable of providing. In other words, managing trees for timber is different from managing trees for firewood or conservation!

Most consistent definition in forestry textbooks is as follows:

Silviculture is the art and science of controlling the establishment, growth, composition, and quality of forest vegetation for the full range of forest resource objective

In simpler terms, to define silviculture, you need to understand that it involves manipulating a forest for specific human needs. However, foresters need to ensure that their management is ecologically sound, is within all the economic constraints and is acceptable by society. In a way, silviculture and sustainable forestry are similar to the concept of sustainable development. 

A more complex definition of silviculture includes the reference to the Latin word, Silvics. Silvics refer to the ‘life history, growth, behavior and ecology of a tree species’. Ergo, silviculture would imply the application of silvics to the management of a tree.

By now, you might be having an idea as to why we call ourselves Silvica.

Poor silvicultural decisions often arise when foresters fail to consider at least one of the three aspects of silvicultural decision making. Some examples of poor silvicultural decisions include:

• Litter raking was a common practice in forestry management in Europe until the early 20^th At this point, it was realized that litter raking was removing necessary nutrients in the soil. In this case, the ecological aspect was ignored.
• In dryland Kenya, a woody species, Prosopis julifola was introduced to increase the woodland cover. However, the foresters/silviculturists in the project failed to consider the societal and ecological impacts. The species dominated other indigenous species that had traditional value to the community.

A key point in the concept of defining silviculture is that forests could be managed for various goals including:

• Timber production: probably the most common application of silviculture
• Wildlife habitats: some species need forests for survival
• Protect water quality: Forests are known water towers
• Restore ecosystem function: For example, reafforestation in Mau forest, Kenya.
• Preserve natural ecosystems and wilderness: Common in national parks and reserves

Silvicultural systems are added to an individual stand to achieve a specific management objective. While it is possible to have more than one management objective on a stand, it would be impossible to optimize management for all. After all, some of the management objectives are inherently conflicting. Preservation conflicts with timber production. Landowners guide the forester in choosing the appropriate treatments

Our operational definition view silviculture as being synonymous with forestry. However, in the real sense of the word, silviculture is a subset of forestry.