{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.02279340446168768, 'fraction_numerical': 0.01745877788554801, 'mean_word_length': 4.92816091954023, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 1, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Nursery Production Methods for Arbutus menziesii Rico Gonzalez

There is a perception that Pacific madrone (Arbutus menziesii) is a difficult species to cultivate, but our efforts were quite successful in the propagation and growing of this species. We grew madrone seedlings on a fairly large scale with standard techniques of fruit collection, seed preparation, stratification, germination and seedling transplantation. The key component is to place the seedlings at a very young stage into containers so that further transplanting maintains the fine root system. In 1994, we produced over 250 seedlings that by the end of the growing season had an average height of 30–40 cm. In 1995 we produced >400 seedlings. These seedlings are now used to compare the effects of a sandy potting medium with the typical soilless medium used in most nurseries. This paper presents a recipe for growing madrones from seed in a greenhouse. There is a perception that the Pacific madrone (Arbutus menziesii) is a difficult plant to grow; however, this is not true. During 1994–95 I was quite successful in the propagation and growing of this species at the Center for Urban Horticulture in Seattle, Washington. It is a plant that is very difficult to transplant but is ideal for container production in a nursery. Once the roots are in a container, the plant, along with the entire root system, can be taken out of the container and planted anywhere in the landscape. This paper focuses on container production of madrone and briefly discusses potential research in this area. There is also a short discussion on madrone research, the potential of future research directions and some precautions. Madrone seedling survival in natural settings is not part of this paper but is discussed by Pelton (1962) and Tappeiner, et al. (1986). METHODS OF PROPAGATION AND PRODUCTION Growing madrones is a 5 step process: 1) collection of seed material; 2) seed preparation including seed storage for occasions when immediate propagation cannot be done; 3) seed stratification (cold treat-