The influence of seed weight and region of origin on seedling growth in the first rotation

This work is devoted to analyzing the influence of the region of origin and weight of Scots pine, European spruce, and Siberian spruce seeds on the growth ball-rooted planting material in greenhouse conditions in the Pskov region. Pine and spruce seeds were collected in one year from different regions in the latitudinal range of the Kaliningrad region, Kirov region, Komi Republic, and Tyumen region, and then separated by weight into heavy, medium, and light. Further cultivation of ball-rooted planting material of pine and spruce was carried out at the greenhouse complex of Ecopolis LLC. The analysis of the data obtained included: correlation analysis, effect analysis (Cohen's D and Cliff's delta) and ANOVA. Distinctive relationships were identified between the weight of pine and spruce seeds and the biometric indicators of seedlings. For pine seeds, a strong positive correlation was found between seed weight (for the heavy fraction) and seedling height. At the same time, the region of origin of the seeds was statistically less significant than the seed mass. The influence of the region of origin on seedling height was recorded only when comparing seeds of the same mass. For European spruce, on the contrary, the key factor is the region of origin of the seeds, and the weight of the seed fractions had no significant effect on seedling height. Therefore, it is likely that spruce seeds should only be separated to remove foreign inclusions and hollow specimens.