Effects of prescribed fire on production of foliage by sapling longleaf pine

Abstract

We conducted an experiment that was designed to show how interaction between prescribed fire and branch phenology affects the growth of planted longleaf pine (Pinus palustris P. Mill.). Treatments were no control of vegetation, vegetation control by burning, and vegetation control by application of herbicides. In the plots burned in May 2003, > 50 percent of the foliage was scorched. In 2004, annual increments of biomass production were similar on the burned and herbicide plots and were greater on the burned plots than on the control plots. A larger proportion of leaf area occurred in the upper crown on the burned and herbicide plots than on the control plots, and a larger proportion of upper crown leaf area was secondflush foliage on the burned plots than on the control and herbicide plots. Results of this experiment suggest that newly established upper crown leaf area contributed to annual biomass production after burning

Parent Publication

• Proceedings of the 13th Biennial Southern Silvicultural Research Conference

Citation

Sword Sayer, Mary Anne; Goelz, J.C.G.; Haywood, James D. 2006. Effects of prescribed fire on production of foliage by sapling longleaf pine. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-92. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. pp. 478-485