Cultural maintenance
In forestry, cultural or young growth care refers to the measures to avert danger and promote growth in an (artificially created) forest culture .
activities
Cultivation care removes sick or unusual plants, for example, in the context of negative selection, through mixed growth regulation it promotes desired species and suppresses undesired ones, it controls competition with other vegetation such as grass or blackberries.
Transition to purification (a thickening)
When the crown closes, the forest culture changes to the phase of thickening or young growth . In the thickening, purification replaces cultural maintenance in order to further maintain and educate the population.
Cultivation after clear cutting
Historical conditions
“Proper forestry ” measures , which include cultural maintenance, developed in response to overexploitation by the 19th century. The current age and species structure, especially of the forests in Germany, is strongly influenced by the necessary reforestation after the so-called “reparation blows” by the Allies after the end of the Second World War . These extensive felling up to the end of the 1940s, for example, quickly removed amounts of wood in the Hamburg and Lauenburg area that corresponded to multiple annual felling. Since wood was an absolutely central resource in post-war Germany, the wood supply first had to be secured: Therefore, many spruce cultures were created, even with neglect of local conditions , which over decades entailed high expenditure on cultural maintenance.
Silvicultural problems
Thinking the forest age class model in terms of areas of the same age means a lot of effort for classic cultivation. If the previous forest cover in the course of final use by deforestation completely cleared, then the scale cropland extreme light and temperature conditions are exposed. There is a risk of high evaporation, sunburn and frost; Herbaceous and forest plants are exposed to concentrated game bites without expensive fences or other protection .
In the soil, the massive incidence of light after removal of the canopy triggers a rapid conversion of nutrients, the mineralization surge. It triggers nutrient loss through leaching in the soil as well as increased growth of grass and other nitrophytes (nitrogen-loving, nitrophilic plants) such as blackberries, fireweed or nettles. Willowherb, like the buds of young forest plants, is rich in nitrogen, and roe deer, as nitrogen selectors, focus their food on them: the culture offers high-quality grazing and is affected accordingly if it is not protected or the game is reduced.
Grass emerging in open spaces creates an ideal biotope for mice, which can destroy hectare-sized crops with gnawing. In addition, the so-called damming through grass growth in open areas under the action of sun and wind leads to high evaporation. The grass growth enters into dangerous water competition with young, still shallowly rooted forest plants, which are dependent on near-surface moisture. In addition, the 2 to 3 year old trees , which are usually grown with the use of fertilizer in the tree nurseries, have to cope with the “planting shock” after being moved to the forest.
Culture care therefore seeks to control risks at sometimes high costs: fences are erected against game bites or hunting is intensified; mowing or “cutting free” suppresses the grass; baits can be used against mice.
Alternative procedures
Where the land-based economy is given up in favor of silviculture based on the single trunk with the promotion of emerging natural regeneration and single trunk use, the expensive cultivation measures are restricted and instead relied on, for example, the concept of biological automation . The permanent forest model according to Alfred Möller also takes a very critical view of the area-wise felling with the following cultural justification.