This year, Forests NSW high-tech Tumut
nursery has supplied 8.5 million pine
seedlings and cutting for public and
private plantations.
Photo Forests NSW Image Library

More than 8.5 million pine seedlings and cuttings are expected to be lifted at Forests NSW Tumut nursery this year. The lifting started in May and should be completed in September.

Forests NSW nursery manager, Dean Page, said managing this year’s crop had been a challenge due to extended high temperatures throughout summer and early autumn.

This year, in excess of 50 casual staff are being employed at the nursery, in addition to the permanent workforce.

“Plus there is a flow-on effect for the region, as people are needed to prepare and plant the crop, in addition to the considerable expenditure by the nursery on local goods and services during the growing of the crop,” Dean said.

Seventy-five per cent of the crop is sent out across NSW to be planted in state-owned plantations, while 25 per cent goes to external customers as far north as Grafton and southern Queensland, across to the NSW coast and the ACT and down to northern Victoria.

“It is a high-tech nursery with improved genetic stock and the demand for our seedlings and cuttings just keeps on growing, with an ever increasing demand from external customers,” Dean said.

Some of the nursery’s major customers include Willmott Forests, Hume Forests and Southern Tree Farm Forestry Network.

At the same time stock is being lifted at the nursery, almost 1.7 million cuttings have been established or ‘set’ in stool beds for the 2008 crop.

Dean said last season’s extremely dry conditions had a detrimental effect on planting survivability.

“This year the nursery is applying a moisture retaining gel to the root systems of the plants in an effort to enhance plant survival by reducing moisture loss during transport, storage and the early plant establishment period,” he said.

This article appears in the Spring 2007 edition of Bush Telegraph Magazine.