Nine-year performance of four hardwoods on a harvested site with and without fertilizer tree shelters, and weed mats in southern Illinois

Quality hardwood species often dominate stands on intermediate to high quality sites before regeneration. However, successfully regenerating these species after the harvest is rarely achieved on these sites. Hardwood species were planted on a high quality site in southern Illinois after clearcutting to study the effect of several cultural practices on the hardwoods' survival and growth. The performance of four hardwoods, black walnut (Juglans nigra L.), northern red oak (Quercus rubra L.), white oak (Q. alba L.), and cherrybark oak (Q. pagoda Raf.), were significantly (α = 0.05) affected by slow-release fertilization, tree shelters, and weed mats at age 9. Survival of all species was higher when treated with 10 g of slow-release fertilizer (16-6-8 NPK) in the planting hole than when not treated. Also, survival was better for trees enclosed in shelters than for trees not enclosed in shelters. Tree survival decreased with the use of weed mats. Tree shelters improved ninth-year height growth of northern red oak, white oak, and cherrybark oak, but not black walnut. The total height growth of black walnut, white oak, and cherrybark oak was greater with fertilizer at planting than without fertilizer packets. The height of red oak was less with fertilizer than without fertilizer. Trees with weed mats were shorter and had less height growth than trees without them.