Austrian pine (Pinus nigra Arnold) seedlings are one of the most produced planting material in Serbian nurseries. In this study we compared a field performance of two container stocktypes, one usually used (2+0 produced in Plantagrah I) and one recently introduced (1+0 produced in Hiko V120 SS). The trial was established at planting site Vlaško polje (East Serbia), at altitude of 840 m a.s.l., one year following the total destruction of previous pine plantation by ice. One-year-old Austrian pine seedlings produced in Hiko containers show similar initial height and root collar diameter at planting time as two-year-old seedlings produced in traditionally used Plantagrah I containers. There was no vegetation control at field trial during the first growing season. At the end of the first growing season, taller (15.6 cm) and more slender (H/D=4.5) 1+0 seedlings from Hiko containers survived at higher rate, and shorter (10.9 cm) and more stocky seedlings 2+0 produced in Plantagrah I grow in height at higher rate. Seedlings taller at the planting time kept their advantage in size after the first growing season at the field. We found that both stocktypes can be used in operational planting programs on sites with lack of vegetation control.

Seedlings are the foundation for many terrestrial ecosystems and are a critical consideration and investment for implementing global forest and landscape restoration programs. Global leaders have pledged to restore millions of hectares during the next decade, necessitating many millions of established plants. Although natural regeneration and direct seeding will likely meet a portion of that need, large quantities of high-quality, nursery-grown seedlings are also required. Insufficient plant quantities or poor-quality plants result in unsuccessful outplanting programs. Such failures have considerable economic and environmental consequences and will result in an inability to meet restoration goals. Nonetheless, the importance of restoration nurseries is often overlooked when making large-scale restoration commitments. Technology already exists to produce high-quality plants to meet a variety of goals. This technology cannot be applied, however, unless adequate resources and training are made available by overcoming political and socioeconomic barriers. In this article, we discuss the important role of nurseries to meet global restoration commitments and review three case studies where increased support to nursery programs resulted in improved restoration success.

During a three-year survey in 14 forest nurseries in Serbia we measured seedlings of 19 species and 96 stocktypes of both conifers and broadleaves. Seedlings were measured in the nurseries for height and diameter, and subsamples was taken for measurements of shoot and root dry weight, and presence of mycorrhiza. Results of mean values and variation of measured morphological attributes are presented and compared to Serbian standard for seedlings quality. We found mycorrhiza on seedlings root from almost every nursery, seedbed and tray. Our results show that current nursery cultural practice need to be improved and that seedlings quality standards should be updated.

The forest has always played a big part in Belarus. At present it covers about 40% of area of the country`s territory. Predominantly the forests are of natural origin. The main species are Pinus sylvestris L. (Scotch pine), Betula pendula Roth (European white birch) and Picea abies (L.) Karst. (Norway spruce). The other valuable species are Quercus robur L (English oak), Alnus glutinosa (L.) Gaertn. (European alder), Larix decidua Mill. (European larch), Abies alba Mill. (Silver fir). The history of the forest management in Belarus showed that over last 150 years the enormous damage to the qualitative and quantitative composition of forests had been made by wars and reconstruction of destroyed industry. The taken reforestation measures allowed to increase the forest area significantly, however, the work on improving of forests` quality requires further development. At present the artificial forest regeneration prevails in the republic. Over the past five years the volumes of established forest plantations range from 21 to 25 thousand hectares annually, the areas of assistance to the natural regeneration - from 4 to 6 thousand hectares annually. By now there are about 1,700 ha of the forest seed orchards, 2,795 plus trees and 1,125 ha of the plus stands in the republic. The cultivation of planting stock for needs of reforestation is carried out on 73 forest tree nurseries with a total area of 1,440 ha. Annually over the last five years there were grown from 270 to 317 million seedlings and transplants, among them 30-35 million seedlings were grown in greenhouses and about 6 million were container seedlings. In order to improve the gene resource and thereby to increase the productivity and quality of future forests, the tendency of forest plantations` prevalence in the reforestation process of Belarus should remain, but in this case the volumes of partial forest plantations should be increased.

The history of reforestation in Slovakia is long and rich; from reforestation by seeding, through the small forest nurseries, reforestation of extreme degraded and high-mountain sites to the current The Act on forest reproductive material, nursery centers and reforestation of large windthrow areas. After brief introduction of the history, rather large part of this review is dedicated to the current nursery and especially reforestation practices – planning, pre-planting site preparation, seeding and planting techniques, post-planting care, monitoring of planting performance. Recent nursery and planting research activities are given very shortly. Perspective nursery (e.g. improvement of seedlings’ quality by inoculation with beneficial microorganisms, vegetative propagation) and reforestation treatments and practices (e.g. the use of larger amount of container-grown seedlings, application of hydrogels and ectomycorrhizal fungi, progressive seeding technique, underplanting) are relatively in detail but of course not comprehensively discussed finally. Despite of the lack of a complex reforestation strategy and current and possibly future financial sources and personnel limitations, the introduced perspective practices should contribute to successful solution of reforestation challenges following from endangering the forests by climate change. 

Preserving forest legacy was an important objective throughout Romanian history and so is today. Artificial forest regeneration (including both reforestation and afforestation) was widely used to ensure the forest continuity, following forest harvesting, or to create new forests on non-forest lands. As Romania has undergone various political changes that affected the socio-economic environment, these changes also left significant marks on forest cover dynamics. In this paper, we chronologically present the historical initiatives to preserve and increase forest cover in Romania, the current practices, available funding and future perspectives on artificial forest regeneration. Increasing forest cover from the current level of 27% to, and beyond European average of 33% seems an ambitious target for Romania. However, that may be achievable if the sources of funding for afforestation would diversify and increase, the available funds would be more effectively accessed, national forestry regulations would be less bureaucratic and the guidelines on artificial forest regeneration would be up to date and less restrictive. The whole framework of forestation should be revised to comply with recent social, economic and environmental realities, and modern criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management should be explicitly included. The new goals should also be tailored to the changes regarding the property type, climate related trends and new requirements of the forest certification systems.

Turkey has 9.64 million hectares of unproductive forests 43% of the total forest area according, to 2016’ forest inventory. Forest establishment including afforestation, reforestation, rehabilitation and private plantation is the most important method to convert unproductive forest into productive ones, and also to increase present productivity of product forest by improved seed and seedling materials. Turkish forest establishment is examined based on past, present, and future perspectives according to forest inventory from 1946 to 2015 in the present study to contribute present and future establishment. 

The historical development of afforestations in Bulgaria was investigated. Some of the more important decisions and events which determine the correct state policy in the field of afforestations are pointed out. The most significant achievements are in: erosion control, incl. water tank protection from silting up; increasing the tree volume and forest growth; protection of agriculture via forest protection belts; landscape improving. The social importance for more employment and improvement of means of livelihood is mentioned. Proved reasons for decreasing the afforested areas since 1980s are given. The main mistakes and problems are mentioned as well as the changes in the afforestation policy and future challenges.

The experiments were led to study the effect of pretreatments and their duration on germination behavior of three Acacia species A. cyanophylla Lindl., A. farnesiana L. and A. decurrens Willd. by analyzing three parameters (GP: germination percentage; MGT: germination mean time (days) and GRI: germination rate index) for various times of incubation (5, 10 and 15 days) in Petri dishes. Pre-sowing treatment included immersion in concentrated sulphuric acid for 60, 90 and 120 minutes. The sowing in distilled water (Control) had no positive effect on the germination induction. Generally, the seed pretreatments were very useful to improve germination. Time of immersion significantly (P < 0.0001) affected GP, MGT and GRI in all species. Increasing the duration of sulphuric acid immersion (from 60 to 120 min) improved the germination percentages for A. cyanophylla and A. farnesiana seeds to (98% and 99%), respectively. However, increasing this duration had a negative effect on A. decurrens seed germination, reducing the final germination percentage from 97% at 60 minutes of immersion to 43% at 120 minutes.

Two pH experiments were conducted at a sandy, bareroot loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) nursery in Texas. A sulfur trial (0, 813, 1626, 2439 kg ha^-1 of elemental sulfur) was installed to determine if lowering soil pH would result in nutrient toxicity symptoms and affect seedling morphology. Although soil acidity in the sulfur study ranged from pH 3.9 to pH 5.0, none of the treatments resulted in micronutrient toxicity and none affected height growth, root-collar diameter, root mass, shoot mass or the root-mass ratio (root dry mass/total dry mass). Acidifying soil with sulfur increased leaching of calcium, potassium, magnesium, manganese and zinc but there was no effect on seedling morphology. The objective of the liming trial (0, 813, 1626, 3252 kg ha^-1 of dolomitic lime) was to determine if increasing alkalinity would result in an iron deficiency and reduce seedling growth. As expected, applying lime increased the calcium and magnesium levels but had no effect on soil levels of iron, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, zinc and sodium. However, the root-mass ratio was reduced by applications of dolomitic lime (pH ranged from 5.3 to 6.0). Differences in soil properties (i.e. plot location) had a greater effect on seedling morphology than lime applications. Foliage levels of manganese and boron were reduced by the highest rate of lime and sulfur, respectively.