WOOD RESEARCH Volume 70, Number 3, 2025
MELİS ÇERÇİOĞLU, MUHAMMED ALİ AYDIN, YASİN KARAŞİN, BURAK BAHAR, and DERYA EŞEN

Effects of mulching on selected properties of soil and young stone pine (Pinus pinea L.) seedlings under semi-arid conditions

Evaporation is a primary source of soil moisture loss, and mulching can effectively reduce this loss, thereby conserving soil moisture. This study examined the effects of wood-materials mulching with various particle sizes and application depths (5-cm thick coarse sawdust, 5-cm thick wood chips, and 10-cm thick wood chips) on some soil properties, including moisture, bulk density (BD), pH, electrical conductivity (EC), organic matter (OM), and CaCO₃, as well as on stone pine (Pinus pinea L.) seedling root collar diameter (RCD), height, sturdiness index (SI), and survival rates. One-year-old containerized stone pine seedlings, a drought-tolerant and economically valuable native conifer species, were planted with a spacing of 3 x 3 m in Aliaga, Izmir, Türkiye. Ten months after treatment (July 2024), no significant differences in soil bulk density and moisture were observed among treatments. The 10-cm-thick wood chips treatment showed significantly greater organic matter content compared to both the control and the 5-cm-thick coarse sawdust treatments. Although large numerical differences were seen in mean pine survival rate and height growth, these differences were not statistically significant, likely due to high data variability. The 10-cm-thick wood chips and 5-cm-thick coarse sawdust treatments demonstrated relatively higher seedling survival rates, while the control treatment showed the lowest seedling survival. However, the control seedlings exhibited significantly greater root RCD than mulch treatments, with the 5-cm-thick coarse sawdust treatment ranking second in promoting seedling RCD. Early results did not indicate enhanced pine survival and growth due to mulching. However, future data collection is recommended to provide further insights.

WOOD RESEARCH Volume 67, Number 3, 2022
Huijun Dong, Mohammad Dahmardeh Ghalehno, Leila Fathi, Elham Ghehsare Ardestani, Miha Humar, and Mohsen Bahmani

Comprehensive evaluation of hawthorn wood characteristics in relation to soil physicochemical properties

Characteristics of hawthorn wood concerning soil physicochemical properties were studied. Physical properties such as dry wood density and volumetric swelling and fiber dimension parameters like fiber length, fiber diameter, and cell wall thickness were investigated. Soil properties including clay, silt soil, sand soil, electrical conductivity, pH, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and organic matter content were determined. Pearson correlation was applied to explore the relationship between soil and wood properties. The mean wood density and volumetric swelling obtained were 0.71 g.cm-3 and 18%, respectively. Moreover, the mean values of fiber length, fiber diameter, and cell wall thickness were 0.80 mm, 20.50 μm, and 5.78 μm, respectively. Pearson correlation analysis showed a significant and positive correlation between wood dry density, cell wall thickness and volumetric swelling with percentage of silt, while a negative relationship between fiber length and percentage of silt were found.