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ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF Forest Nursery & Plantation Establishment: practice questions

ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (PhD) — Subject 59 Forestry · India · National Testing Agency for ICAR

Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papers
9worked here, free
20written to this exam in this subject
11syllabus units

What this subject covers

Raising planting stock and getting it established in the field: nursery layout, containers and media, seedling quality, site preparation, planting and early care.

In the exams: IFoS Forestry Paper I Section A (nursery and planting techniques, grading and hardening, water budgeting); ICAR AICE-JRF 59 Unit 2; ICAR AIEEA-PG Group 09 (nursery and planting technique)

What ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF asks from it

ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (PhD) — Subject 59 Forestry, Unit 2 Silviculture

Nursery technique, growing media, damping-off and nursery protection, seedling quality indices, physiology of hardening, and planting techniques.

Where the 20 questions fall

How our questions for ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF spread across the units of Forest Nursery & Plantation Establishment. Difficulty: 1 easy, 8 medium, 11 hard.

Nursery site selection, layout and bed types2
Bare-root and container nurseries; root trainers2
Growing media and sowing methods2
Nursery operations: shading, watering, nutrition, weed control2
Nursery pests and diseases2
Seedling quality grading and hardening2
Planting patterns, spacing and pit sizes2
Moisture conservation and irrigation at establishment2
Survival assessment and beating up2
Site preparation and soil working1
Planting methods and timing1

9 practice questions, worked

Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.

1 · Growing media and sowing methods · medium

Why are many temperate nurseries moving away from peat-based media?

  1. Peat has no water-holding capacity and dries out within an hour of watering
  2. Peat extraction damages wetlands and releases stored carbon
  3. Peat contains so much nitrogen that it burns seedling roots at once
  4. Peat cannot be bought anywhere in the world because all bogs are protected
Answer and working

B. Peat extraction damages wetlands and releases stored carbon

Environmental concern over peatland damage and carbon loss drives the change. Peat holds water well, is low in available nitrogen, and is still sold.

Further reading: Landis et al., The Container Tree Nursery Manual; Evans & Turnbull, Plantation Forestry in the Tropics (3rd ed., 2004); Khanna, Principles and Practice of Silviculture

2 · Growing media and sowing methods · hard

A seed lot has 90 per cent purity and 50 per cent germination, and nursery survival is 80 per cent. How many kilograms are needed for 18,000 plants if the lot contains 10,000 seeds per kg (of pure seed)?

  1. 5.0 kg
  2. 4.5 kg
  3. 3.6 kg
  4. 1.8 kg
Answer and working

A. 5.0 kg

Pure seeds needed = 18,000 ÷ (0.5 × 0.8) = 45,000; pure seed weight = 45,000 ÷ 10,000 = 4.5 kg; gross lot weight = 4.5 ÷ 0.9 = 5.0 kg. 4.5 ignores purity; 3.6 ignores survival (18,000 ÷ 0.5 ÷ 10,000 = 3.6); 1.8 ignores germination, survival and purity (18,000 ÷ 10,000).

Further reading: Landis et al., The Container Tree Nursery Manual; Evans & Turnbull, Plantation Forestry in the Tropics (3rd ed., 2004); Khanna, Principles and Practice of Silviculture

3 · Nursery pests and diseases · medium

Why are older seedlings no longer susceptible to damping-off?

  1. Their roots have stopped growing
  2. Their leaves contain fungicide
  3. They no longer need any water
  4. Their stems have become woody
Answer and working

D. Their stems have become woody

Damping-off attacks soft young stem tissue; lignified stems resist it.

Further reading: Landis et al., The Container Tree Nursery Manual; Evans & Turnbull, Plantation Forestry in the Tropics (3rd ed., 2004); Khanna, Principles and Practice of Silviculture

4 · Nursery pests and diseases · hard

Why is hygiene of stock plants especially important in clonal nurseries?

  1. Clonal plants cannot be infected by any disease once they have rooted in a mist chamber, where humidity can be controlled
  2. Diseases can spread through infected stock plants and cuttings to all the plants raised from them
  3. Stock plants are never pruned, so they always remain free of all leaf diseases
  4. Clonal nurseries use no water, so humidity-related diseases cannot develop
Answer and working

B. Diseases can spread through infected stock plants and cuttings to all the plants raised from them

One infected stock plant can pass disease to many cuttings. The other statements are false.

Further reading: Landis et al., The Container Tree Nursery Manual; Evans & Turnbull, Plantation Forestry in the Tropics (3rd ed., 2004); Khanna, Principles and Practice of Silviculture

5 · Seedling quality grading and hardening · hard

Root growth potential measures:

  1. The total length of roots present in the container on the day of dispatch
  2. The depth to which roots will eventually reach in the planting site soil
  3. The number of mycorrhizal fungi species present on the roots in the nursery after the nursery season ends
  4. The ability of a seedling to grow new roots in a standard test environment over a set period
Answer and working

D. The ability of a seedling to grow new roots in a standard test environment over a set period

RGP is a physiological test of new-root production, indicating how quickly a plant can establish. It is not current root length, eventual depth or fungal diversity.

Further reading: Landis et al., The Container Tree Nursery Manual; Evans & Turnbull, Plantation Forestry in the Tropics (3rd ed., 2004); Khanna, Principles and Practice of Silviculture

6 · Survival assessment and beating up · medium

Survival counts are commonly made:

  1. After the first rains and growing season, and again before the next planting season
  2. Only once, at the end of the rotation when the crop is felled for sale
  3. Every day during the first week only
  4. Only before the pits are dug
Answer and working

A. After the first rains and growing season, and again before the next planting season

Timing the counts this way allows beating up to be planned. The other timings are useless for establishment decisions.

Further reading: Landis et al., The Container Tree Nursery Manual; Evans & Turnbull, Plantation Forestry in the Tropics (3rd ed., 2004); Khanna, Principles and Practice of Silviculture

7 · Survival assessment and beating up · hard

After a survival count, 550 plants per hectare must be replaced, and replacements typically suffer 10 per cent loss. About how many replacement plants should be supplied per hectare?

  1. About 495
  2. About 550
  3. About 611
  4. About 605
Answer and working

C. About 611

To end with 550 survivors at 90% survival: 550 ÷ 0.9 = 611. 605 adds 10% (550 × 1.1), which slightly underestimates; 495 subtracts 10%; 550 ignores losses.

Further reading: Landis et al., The Container Tree Nursery Manual; Evans & Turnbull, Plantation Forestry in the Tropics (3rd ed., 2004); Khanna, Principles and Practice of Silviculture

8 · Nursery site selection, layout and bed types · medium

A nursery serving a whole forest division for many years, with permanent irrigation and buildings, is a:

  1. Flying nursery
  2. Hedge garden
  3. Permanent nursery
  4. Mist chamber
Answer and working

C. Permanent nursery

Permanent nurseries are large and long-lived. Flying nurseries are temporary; hedge gardens and mist chambers are parts of a clonal nursery.

Further reading: Landis et al., The Container Tree Nursery Manual; Evans & Turnbull, Plantation Forestry in the Tropics (3rd ed., 2004); Khanna, Principles and Practice of Silviculture

9 · Nursery operations: shading, watering, nutrition, weed control · medium

Legume seedlings in the nursery may be inoculated with:

  1. Ectomycorrhizal pine fungi
  2. Damping-off fungi
  3. White grub eggs
  4. Nitrogen-fixing rhizobia
Answer and working

D. Nitrogen-fixing rhizobia

Legumes nodulate with rhizobia, supplied by inoculation where natural populations are absent.

Further reading: Landis et al., The Container Tree Nursery Manual; Evans & Turnbull, Plantation Forestry in the Tropics (3rd ed., 2004); Khanna, Principles and Practice of Silviculture

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Read the subject

Forest Nursery & Plantation EstablishmentThe full study manual, free ICAR AICE-JRF/SRFFormat, sections and how it has changed

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