Strathlorne Forest Nursery
One of our main seedling suppliers is the Strathlorne Forest Nursery, located in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. This nursery was established in 1978, and is well known for producing quality seedlings for commercial harvesters and woodlot owners all over Atlantic Canada. Strathlorne predominantly produces coniferous seedlings, but has a small program for several types of deciduous species. Visit their website at the following link:
novascotia.ca/natr/forestry/Strathlorne
Here are some photos showing a nursery tour of the facility at Strathlorne.
Lots of healthy young seedlings.
Balsam Fir seedlings.
Red Spruce seedlings.
Some trays of plugs. These are used to host the seed as it germinates and grows into a baby tree.
This machine inserts conifer seeds into the plugs.
Strathlorne has the capacity to grow millions of seedlings at once.
Red Oaks.
Red Maples.
Well-developed balsam firs.
Sugar Maples.
This machine is used to cut the trays of plugs before being delivered to the planters, to ensure that the roots don't grow out of the plugs and get tangled together. A few roots are severed during this process, but this makes it possible to plant individual seedlings rather than having a whole cluster of trees come out of the tray in a clump.
Another photo of the cutting machine in action. Click here to see a 90-second YouTube video of this machine in action.
Colourful baby trees!
Dee, our lead for indigenous relations and horticulture, holding a sugar maple seedling.