Forest plants to be planted must be of high quality. This means that forest plants must comply with the requirements set out in the Cultivating Material Regulation and these must have a basic certificate of cultivating material, which confirms that the cultivating material is certified. Non-certified cultivating material may not be used for reforestation.
Persons who would like to distribute cultivating material must register in the Plant Health Register (TTR) by submitting a notice of economic activity to be entered in the plant health register. The plant health register can be accessed with an ID-card by logging into the customer portal of the Agriculture and Food Board.
Upon submission of a notice of economic activities to the Plant Health Register, a state fee of 32 euros must be paid pursuant to § 247 of the state fees act.
The distribution of cultivating material is the production, storage, packaging and marketing of cultivating material, from a non-Community country to Estonia or from Estonia to a non-Community country.
Distributors of cultivating material must submit a report required by Regulation No 20 on the marketed cultivating material and the one consumed by themselves.
Plant cultivation
A bare-root or potted plants are grown in the open field or covered area for planting forest. Outdoor growing areas are also used for growing potted plants. The plants are brought there out from a greenhouse to grow and hibernate. Marketable plants must be healthy and viable.
Seed farming
The basic material necessary for plant cultivation, i.e. seeds, is collected from individual trees, groups of trees, forest stands or seed orchards. It is necessary to certify the seeds before taking them into use.
Vegetative propagation of tree plants
Valuable clones are propagated vegetatively by means of micro-propagation method. Clones of hybrid aspen and curly birch are propagated by means of micro-propagation method. An entrepreneur who would like to grow plants using the micro-propagation method has to apply for an activity licence for micro-propagation from the register of economic activities.
The certification of cultivating material is considered to be the verification of the origin of the basic material of the cultivating material, species identity and quality and its conformity with internationally established requirements for plant health and the issue of a document (main certificate) attesting the certification.
In the course of certification, seeds of forest trees are analysed in an accredited laboratory according to an internationally recognized method.
The applicant for certification must be previously registered in the register of economic activities or plant health register, i.e. the production of seeds or plants of his or her forest trees has been carried out under supervision.
Seeds of forest trees or vegetatively propagated plants are certified.
Approved data list of basic material
The basic material, that is in compliance with the requirements, used for the production of cultivating material shall be entered in the data list of the approved basic material. The data list of basic material approved by Estonia is available on the website of the European Commission: FOREMATIS
Categories of the cultivating material
The cultivating material is divided into categories according to the origin of the basic material:
- Source known, consisting of a single tree or forest stand at one source point
- Selected, consisting of a forest stand selected on the basis of a phenotype at one source point
- Qualified, the basic material of which is seed orchard, parents or clones of families
- Tested, the quality of which has been proven genetically or by comparison tests.
When marketing cultivating material, only basic material corresponding to the minimum requirements established for the category set out in § 4-8 of regulation No. 20 "Requirements for the origin of the basic material, distribution and marketing of cultivating material permitted for reforestation" of the Minister of the Environment of 1 July 2016 can be used.
In order to certify the seeds of forest trees, first of all, you need to order an analysis of the quality of the seeds. Those who would like to order an analysis, have to submit an application to the Forest Department of the Environmental Board.
An authorised representative of the Environmental Board takes a sample for analysis from the batch of seeds and sends it to the seed control laboratory of the Agricultural Research Centre for analysis as from 1 January 2021 (EAK accreditation L003). Purity, mass and germination of 1000 seeds is determined on the basis of the seeds sample.
The quality of seeds of forest trees is assessed in compliance with the requirements established in Regulation No. 20 "Requirements for the origin of the basic material, distribution and marketing of cultivating material permitted for reforestation" of the Minister of the Environment of 1 July 2016.
THE ENVIRONMENTAL BOARD ISSUES THE APPLICANT THE RESULTS OF THE ANALYSIS AS A REPORT.
In order to certify the seeds of forest trees, an application together with the analysis report of the seeds should be submitted to the Environmental Board.
The Environmental Board verifies the compliance of the requirements, established in the aforementioned regulation, with the data in the submitted application, and in case of compliance, issues the basic certificate. If the data submitted in the application do not comply with the reality, the Environmental Board may refuse to issue a basic certificate.
If the basic certificate is refused, the Environmental Board shall submit a reasoned decision in writing to the applicant of the basic certificate.
In case of compliance with the requirements, the applicant is issued a basic certificate within 15 working days as of the registration of the application for the basic certificate at the Environmental Board.
Applications for forest use
Forms and instructions for the certification of seeds of forest trees can be found on the applications page of the forest use.
According to § 134 of the State Fees Act, an applicant shall pay a state fee of 100 euros for the collection of seed samples and laboratory testing of forest tree seeds for the purpose of certification thereof.
Seed control of forest trees
The quality of the seeds of forest trees changes over time, and therefore the germination of deciduous seeds must be reassessed after 2 years and the germination of coniferous seeds 5 years after the previous analysis, as the previous analysis results expire.
- Determination of seed germination should be ordered for reanalysis of the seeds of forest trees.
- Submit an application to the Forest Department of the Environmental Board for the analysis of the seeds.
An authorised representative of the Environmental Board takes a sample for analysis from the batch of seeds and sends it to the seed control laboratory of the Agricultural Research Centre for analysis as from 1 January 2021 (EAK accreditation L003).
The person ordering the analysis shall pay, according to the invoice submitted, for determining the germination of the seed batch taken for reanalysis.
Price list of the services of the seed control laboratory of the Agricultural Research Centre.
The producer of vegetatively propagated forest trees must submit an application to the Forest Department of the Environmental Board.
The compliance of plants with the requirements provided for in the relevant category of the aforementioned Regulation are assessed during the examination of the application. In case of compliance, a basic certificate is issued to the applicant.
If the data submitted in the application do not comply with the reality, the Environmental Board may refuse to issue a basic certificate. If the basic certificate is refused, the Environmental Board shall submit a reasoned decision in writing to the applicant of the basic certificate.
Applications for the certification of plants of forest trees
Dioryctria abietella
Dioryctria abietella is a small butterfly with brownish to greyish front wings, who lays eggs on the scales of a cone: up to 7 eggs on one cone. Caterpillars feed on the scales and seeds of the cone, but they do not harm the stem. A larvae can move from one cone to another.
Drops of resin and hanging brownish lumps of excrement are visible on the surface of a damaged cone. The larvae hibernate in the forest decay and pupate in spring. In years with few cones, larvae feed on spruce sprouts. Most often there are one or two caterpillars in a cone. If there are two caterpillars in a cone, they destroy 60 % of the seeds in the cone.
Strobilomyia anthracina
Strobilomyia anthracina is a medium-sized glossy black fly belonging to Anthomyiidae, which lays mostly 1-3 eggs, but sometimes more, near the stem of a "flower" during the "flowering" of spruce. Yellowish-white maggots feed on the scales and seeds of a cone. The damaged cone most often becomes crooked, lots of resin appears on its surface.
Since the strobilomyia anthracina damages young cones, they often dry out. The larvae pupate in the forest decay, pupa hibernates. One larva in a cone destroys 40-45 % of the seeds, while 2-3 larvae destroy more than 60 % of the seeds. Since damaged cones give out a lot of resin, the seeds that have remained intact cannot be picked there while husking.
Inland spruce cone rust
Inland spruce cone rust is caused by two fungi belonging to rust fungi, the most common of which is Thekopsora areolata. Damaged cones are dark, the covering scales are scattered and their inside is covered with dark brown pads with a diameter of 2-3 mm – fungal springs.
As a result of the action of the fungus, the development of seeds slows down, they remain lighter and ripen less than in undamaged cones. There is no point in collecting cones damaged by inland spruce cone rust to collect seeds, since the germination of the seeds obtained from them is very small or they do not germinate at all.
Last updated: 29.11.2022
