Nursery stock industry practitioners need to raise their guard and watch out for risks

Fast-growing plane tree, fast-growing ash, fast-growing cherry blossom, fast-growing crape myrtle…… In recent years, many conventional landscaping varieties have seen upgraded versions———fast-growing varieties. With a growth rate one or even several times that of the original varieties, they quickly attracted the attention of nursery producers and users, becoming an important force in the nursery stock industry. But judging from the current state of development, some fast-growing varieties are expanding too quickly and are planted over too large an area, and nursery stock practitioners need to raise their guard.

Take Liying in Shandong, where I am based. As the hometown of plane trees, it used to grow only ordinary plane trees. Fast-growing plane trees began to appear around 2003. At first, nursery producers were not optimistic about them, and their spread was neither fast nor slow. A few years later, farmers then growing fast-growing plane trees found that their growth rate really was fast, and that the tree form was good, the trunk very straight, and the bark color attractive. For engineering seedlings of the same specification, the production cycle was shorter than that of ordinary plane trees. So, starting in 2008, more and more nursery stock practitioners joined the ranks of fast-growing plane tree production, and from then on there was no stopping it.

For a plane tree with a diameter at breast height of 10 cm, the ordinary variety sells for 120 yuan and the fast-growing variety for 170 yuan; that is the current market situation in Liying. Because it grows fast, it commands a high price. Driven by the lure of profit from “not only growing fast, but also selling high,” fast-growing plane trees in recent years have rapidly occupied the nursery bases of every plane tree hometown like an “invasive plant.” Now, ordinary plane trees are rarely seen in Liying. Among seedlings with a diameter at breast height of 8 cm or less in particular, fast-growing plane trees completely “rule the roost.”

⟦NL> Although they grow fast, compared with ordinary plane trees, fast-growing plane trees are slightly less cold-hardy. In Dandong, Liaoning, the bark of fast-growing plane trees splits in winter from frost damage. Therefore, at present, in Northeast China, Northwest China and the northern part of North China, the use of fast-growing plane trees is very limited. Beyond this, whether fast-growing plane trees have other drawbacks remains to be observed.

From the time fast-growing plane trees were bred to reaching such a large production scale now, no more than 10 years have passed, and their use in the landscaping market has only been about the last 5 years. Other fast-growing tree species may have entered the market even more recently. Since 2010, the production area of fast-growing plane trees in Liying can be described as having surged. Producers rushed in en masse, and among them small and medium-sized seedlings made up the vast majority. I am not saying that fast-growing plane trees are bad; rather, I fear that with such a large production area and such a fast pace of development, if some problem or even a relatively fatal flaw should emerge in the future, producers could suffer serious losses.

To evaluate a new superior variety, one needs to observe it through a complete life cycle from seed to seed, and on that basis understand its characteristics and its performance in different regions. Even for new superior varieties that have already passed approval, it is very likely that their advantages and disadvantages will gradually be discovered as they are used in different regions and in different ways, and they will need to be slowly improved according to circumstances. That is to say, expanding production and promoting application step by step is the prudent approach. And from the standpoint of maintaining biodiversity and the richness of plant cultivation resources, those traditional varieties should not be completely abandoned either.

Another phenomenon that nursery stock practitioners need to note is that fast-growing plane trees in Liying and even across the country only began large-scale propagation in the past two or three years. This concentrated production and concentrated market launch of large quantities of seedlings of the same variety and the same specification is like thousands of troops and horses crowding onto a single-plank bridge. Even if they can be sold, it is hard to guarantee maximum returns. Add to that the fact that fast-growing plane trees grow very quickly and can leave the nursery in three to five years, and in such a short time producers who want to find enough buyers need a certain amount of time. Therefore, even if fast-growing plane trees are taken as the main planted variety, I would also suggest that producers make more of an effort with the uses of nursery stock products, seek out different niche market spaces, and obtain higher returns.