A Nursery Guide for the Production of Bareroot Hardwood Seedlings, Agriculture Handbook 733, first published in November 2019, is an up-to-date manual for nursery managers, researchers, and anyone interested in growing trees for resale, reclamation, or reforestation.


From the Forward: Temperate hardwoods are cultured across the United States, with most production occurring in the eastern half of the country. Most chapters within this manual cover one topic for the entire area. Other topics exhibit geographic variation such as seedbed preparation and sowing, weed management, and practices related to lifting and packing. These chapters provide a range of content to give a full perspective. Other topics, such as fertilizer and soils, can be applied more generally regardless of location. The seed chapter highlights topics related to hardwood seed. Protocols for handling many commercially valuable species are fairly well established because of extensive research and decades of production. Research on the culture of most hardwood species is far from complete, and many questions remain. This paucity of research is not unique to hardwood-other species (tree and plant) favored for restoration plantings are not as well studied and pose unique challenges to nurseries. Our goal is to provide practical, up-to-date science-based information on hardwood seedling culture. We recognize that each nursery is unique, and these recommendations may need to be adjusted to meet local conditions.


A cadre of professional nursery workers, many with decades of experience working in nurseries across the Eastern United States, wrote this guide. The audience for this guide is nursery managers who grow temperate hardwood trees in a bareroot nursery in the Eastern United States. Beginners who wish to construct a new nursery or have no experience growing hardwoods will find greater detail in other manuals devoted to culture of bareroot stock, such as the Tropical Nursery Manual (Wilkinson et al. 2014), The Woody Plant Seed Manual (Bonner and Karrfalt 2008), and the Forest Nursery Manual (Duryea and Landis 1984). Also, while hardwood trees can be grown successfully in containers, their copious root systems require large containers; the management of these is beyond the scope of this manual.