Time Series for Plant Deliverance
The deliverance of seedlings to forestry is presented below for the years 2006-2021 for Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Finland.
Picea abies
Figure 6
Figure 6-14 shows the number of million seedlings to the forestry planted in each country and year.
Pinus sylvestris
Figure 7
The low numbers of pine seedlings in Norway is due to the fact that pine traditionally has been regenerated naturally.
Abies spp.
Figure 8
Data for Norway not available for the years before 2021.
Iceland
For the past decades forest seedlings have been stored outside over the winter time in Iceland. There is a growing interest in using freezers to store seedlings during the winter, as this method eases the transportation of seedlings and can better guarantee their quality.
A PhD project, carried out by Rakel J. Jónsdóttir, compares survival, growth and autumn freezing tolerance for seedlings stored in freezers and in an outdoor storage. After planting the seedlings at various dates in early spring and summer. The result will help to deal with increasing production and planting of seedlings.
Betula spp.
Figure 9
The category Betula spp. (birch) contains aggregated numbers for all species of birch where data were available.
Larix spp.
Figure 10
Data for Sweden not available for the years before 2019.
Pinus contorta
Figure 11
Data for Sweden not available for the years before 2011.
Sweden
In 2021, 452 million seedlings were delivered in Sweden, which is an increase by 11 percent since 2020. Scots pine has increased since 2013 and is now the most common species to be planted in Sweden. Also the amount of spruce seedlings has increased since 2020, but on a lower level than Scots pine. After several years of decrease, Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) has increased in the two last years, to an annual delivery of 10 million seedlings. The most common broadleaved tree species sold in Sweden is birch, with 1.8 million seedlings delivered in 2021.
Popolus spp.
Figure 12
Aspen forest, photo: Lars Sandved Dalen/NIBIO.
Other conifers
Figure 13
Data for Sweden not available for the years before 2019.
Other broadleaves
Figure 14
Data for Norway and Sweden not available for the years before 2021.
Forest for Climate Mitigation in Norway
In 2016 NOK 33 mill was allocated to climate mitigation measures within the forest sector in Norway. The funds were divided into three different uses; denser planting of forest, fertilization and breeding. There was a shortage of spruce seedlings in Norway the same year. Political aim and increased funding for climate mitigation measures, including denser planting of forest, caused a growing demand for seedlings.
Plant Deliverance in 2020/2021 Categorized as Improved/Unimproved
In the following we present deliverance of plants to the forestry categorized as improved and unimproved material. The purpose of this partition is to compare the use of material that has been genetically improved, typically as part of a forest tree breeding program, with the use of material not subject to genetic improvement. We have defined improved material as plants from seeds classified as "qualified" or "tested" according to the OECD classification (table 1 in the chapter "Seed Production per OECD Category"). Unimproved is here defined as any other material than improved.
Picea abies
Figure 15
The stacks in this chapter represents rounded percentage of the total amount in thousand seedlings.
Finland: 102.474
Iceland: 1
Norway: 43.540
Sweden: 197.000
Pinus sylvestris
Figure 16
Finland: 43.937
Norway: 1753
Sweden: 237.000
Betula spp.
Figure 17
Finland: 5411
Iceland: 2012
Norway: 60
Sweden: 1800
Larix spp.
Figure 18
Finland: 178
Iceland: 372
Sweden: 3700
Norway
The demand for plants and seeds from pine is increasing, and Norwegian forestry has a clear preference for improved material. This is mainly imported from Sweden as seeds or plants. Skogfrøverkets (Norwegian Forest Seed Center) sale of pine seeds increased by 223% from 2020 to 2021. 85% of sales are domestic stand seed. Much of the demand for pine seed for plant production is now covered by improved seed from Sweden, which has made it possible to sell more stand seed in Eastern Norway for direct sowing in forest. Skogfrøverket has started a breeding program for pine (Pinus sylvestris) that will provide second generation seed materials from Norwegian orchards in approximately 15-20 years.
Abies spp.
Figure 19
Norway: 122
Pinus contorta
Figure 20
Finland: 6
Iceland: 1659
Sweden: 9800
Fagus sylvatica
Figure 21
Finland: 0,3
Populus spp.
Figure 22
Finland: 21
Iceland: 454
Sweden: 178
Quercus spp.
Figure 23
Finland: 11
Other conifers
Figure 24
Finland: 15
Iceland: 753
Sweden: 400
Other broadleaves
Figure 25
Finland: 36
Iceland: 68
Norway: 8
Sweden: 1800
Seed Production in the Nordic Countries
The seed production is presented below (Figure 26-29) for the years 2009-2021. The following categories are included in the figures: Norway spruce (Picea abies), Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), birch (Betula spp.), firs (Abies spp.), larch (Larix spp.), contorta pine (Pinus contorta), European beech (Fagus sylvatica), oak (Quercus spp.), other conifers and other broadleaves.
Top: Seeds of ash (Fraxinus excelisor), photo by Lars Sandved Dalen/NIBIO.
Figure 26
Figure 26-29 shows seed production for species in countries and years (year of ripening/harvest). Data were not available for Finland in 2019 and before 2013, and for Iceland before 2014.
When comparing seed production in kg among species it is worth noting that seeds of different species can have very different weights.
Norway
Norway spruce had a lot of cones in most parts of the country in 2021. Particularly high expectations were to the possibilities for cone harvest in Northern Norway since the seed available for this region is old and of a lower quality. There were plans to harvest cones for 15–25 years of seed supply for the region, but the yield did not turn out to be as high as hoped. This was mainly due to less cones available for harvest in this region and a high proportion of empty seeds due to poor pollination. The seed crop will supply seedling production for the next 15 years in northern Norway. It was also collected seed from Pinus sylvestris, Abies lasiocarpa, Alnus glutinosa and Betula pendula in 2021.
Figure 27
Figure 28
Seed Quality
All seeds produced in the EU must come from officially approved and registered basic material, such as seed orchards or seed stands. A Master Certificate is issued to each seed lot after collection and is required for marketing forest reproductive material. It assures that seeds are collected from an approved basic material and include information on the type of basic material, phenotypic and genetic quality and origin of the material.
Forest reproductive material coming from countries outside the EU may be imported to and marketed in the EU if it affords the same assurances as the material produced in the EU, based on the OECD Certificate of Identity or Certificate of Provenance.
