Lallemand Inc.

Published purpose

Mortality of urban forest trees exceeds 30% within the first two years of planting, which limits municipality's tree canopy cover goals and costs millions in losses per year. Lallemand will develop three microbial soil amendment prototypes that may be able to provide planting pits with improved water holding capacity, improved soil structure, increased nutrients, root stimulation and buffering from abiotic stress such as drought and osmotic stress. This project will 1.] test the best soil amendment prototypes in a greenhouse trial using silver maple seedlings and 2.] measure the hydraulic properties of the soils treated with soil amendments using the Extended Evaporation Method to guide rates of incorporation for urban tree planting.