Abstract

Two-year-old Washington hawthorn (Crataegus phaenopyrum Med.) and Norway maple (Acer platanoides L.) seedlings were subjected to varying cold storage durations and 4 storage treatments: whole plant covered, shoots exposed, roots exposed and whole plant exposed. After storage, half the seedlings were immediately planted and half received a 12-hr desiccation treatment prior to transplanting. Root growth potential (RGP), time to bud break, and marketability were measured. With the root covered treatments, Norway maple RGP increased, while Washington hawthorn RGP decreased with increased cold storage duration. RGP for both species remained low throughout storage for treatments exposing roots. The 12-hr desiccation treatment reduced RGP for both species with hawthorn being more affected than maple. Days to bud break for both species decreased with increased storage time for whole plant covered treatments, but increased for both species when stored with exposed roots. Maple marketability for root covered treatments was high for most storage durations. Hawthorn marketability was generally low except for the whole plant covered treatment during the first 6 weeks of storage. For the respective storage durations, hawthorn RGP, time to bud break and marketability values for the shoots exposed treatment were similar to the roots exposed treatments. In contrast, values for the shoot exposed treatment were similar to the whole plant covered treatment for maple. There was a high positive correlation between RGP and marketability for both species.