Subject: Tree orientation?

From: [email-masked] (Adrian Salter)
Date: Tue, 6 Jun 1995 02:11:44 GMT

I'm looking for information about the practice of marking field grown
trees with a spot to indicate the north facing side.

How common is this?

Why is it done?

What value is it? - to the producer? - to the buyer?

Thanks,

Adrian

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From: [email-masked] (Paul Stewart)
Date: 6 Jun 1995 09:39:27 -0400

[email-masked] (Adrian Salter) writes: 
>I'm looking for information about marking field grown 
>trees to indicate the north facing side. Why is it done? 
>Thanks, > >Adrian

Adrian:
	Funny, just yesterday I heard about this too, on a phone-in radio 
show out of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Apparently, according to this forester 
(whose name I didn't catch...sorry) trees do not expend energy 
symetrically  on all sides. The south facing side absorbs more sun energy 
and so needs to feed itself as well as the less nourished north side. 
Root growth and food storage follow this trend, and if the tree is 
replanted out of this orientation it takes time and energy to adapt that 
it could use growing and fending off disease, etc. That was the gist of 
what they said. Anyone else know more detail on this? Is it true for 
other plants as well? For instance ginseng is often transplanted each 
year, and seedling starts from greenhouses are planted out this time of 
year. Would faster establishment and growth result from keeping the 
original orientation when transplanting?

ABIOGEN c/o Paul Stewart
RR #2 Vernon Bridge
Prince Edward Island
CANADA   C0A 2E0
[email-masked]