Scientific publications

The ripe softwood stocks in the Northwest of Russia are severely depleted because of the activity of large wood-processing enterprises. The intensification of forest management is necessary in these circumstances, particularly, through the establishment of forest plantations. The paper evaluated of the wood quality for 41-year-old spruce plantation crops of different density in the growing conditions of spruce forests. It was established that the application of mineral fertilizers and cutting maintenance contributed to the increase in the annual ring width at 14–49% during the period of the effective activities depending on the density of cultures. The comprehensive stand care had the best effect on the radial growth of crops with an initial density of 3.0 thousand. pcs. / ha. The wood of spruce cultures had the following qualitative characteristics: the number of annual rings – 1 cm – 3,4–4,2 pc .; the average width of an annual ring – 2,4–2,9 mm, the percentage of late wood – 21–28%. It was noted that the smaller the density of crops without care was, the greater were the width of annual rings and the percentage of late wood. The decrease in the spruce wood density by 1–10% is observed within 4-7 years after each care operation, i.e., the application of mineral fertilizers and thinning. The wood density in versions with the same initial density had no significant differences for the entire period of cultivation and reached high values (365–379 kg/m3), regardless of the measures. According to this indicator, the spruce wood cultures corresponded to the average values of naturally growing spruce forests of the taiga zone.