This week I visited with FORTE Participant K&L Pine Seedling Nursery in Buena Vista, Georgia and worked on the maintenance of existing FORTE studies and installed a new study on land provided by K&L. Collectively, these studies provide a platform for both K&L and other FORTE (Forest Owners Research and Technology Exchange) Participant learning but also empower larger forest sector knowledge, communication and relationship.
 
The existing studies include an installation of our FORTE Pine Species Comparison Tests that compares the performance of longleaf, loblolly and slash pine at varying initial planting densities and across levels of management intensity. PRT Growing Services graciously provided container seedlings for this large and important study establishment in early 2022. This study site is a deep, upland sand (Troup series) that is representative of a lot of the Upper Coastal Plain Region in Georgia and Alabama, so there is broad application for study findings. This is a twin study to an identical installation on a wet, lowland, Lower Coastal Plain site on FORTE-Participant lands in Charlton County, Georgia, and thus it empowers some great growth and competitive species performance comparisons on starkly contrasting sites.
 

This study center also includes a large K&L Loblolly Pine Genetic Comparison Test empowering an opportunity for increased characterization of the genetically improved bare-root planting stock that K&L is selling to their customers in Georgia, Alabama and Florida. Improved genetic trait characterization empowers better understanding for seedling utilization and deployment and also for improved investor cost savings.

 
A new FORTE study that I put in this week, is a Slash Pine Wide-row Initial Planting Density Trial. Lucas Singleton is pictured here hand-pulling (their operation norm to preserve roots) slash pine seedlings for the study. This new installation finishes off the establishment of a strong learning and demonstration site in Marion County, Georgia.