Soil preparation (muokkaus)

Soil preparation means the breaking of the soil after a regeneration felling. Its purpose is to safeguard the growth of a new generation of trees during their first years.

Screefing, or scalping, means the removal of the topsoil down to the mineral soil from a patch which may be 30 x 30 cm in size. On a patch like this, the seedling or seed is able to push its roots directly into the mineral soil, and it is also less disturbed by undergrowth.

In mounding, a good-sized hole is scooped into the soil with an excavator or a hoe and the soil is turned upside down next to the hole; the seedling is then planted on top of this mound. Mounding is generally used in waterlogged areas. In patch mounding the soil is turned upside down to the very same place where it was taken from. Mounding, and especially patch mounding are new soil preparation methods and use of them is increasing.

In harrowing, the soil surface is turned to create shallow furrows, into which the new trees are planted or sown. In ploughing, the surface of the soil is also turned, but ploughing is no longer as heavy as during the 1960s, for example.

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