Experiment on the cultivation of “cosmic” grey-blue spruce in the arboretum of the Main Botanical Garden named after N.V. Tsitsin of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Abstract

The interest in studying the possibilities of introduction of Picea glauca (Moench.) Voss. into the territory of the center of the European part of the Russian Federation is explained by a wide range of ecological characteristics of this species, as well as by the prospects of its use in various spheres of the country’s economy. The article deals with the results of a unique experiment to study the growth peculiarities of the grey-blue spruce trees, which were grown from seeds that had been in Earth orbit during the Soviet-American space flight of the Soyuz‑19 and Apollo spacecrafts in July 1975. The seeds were sown in May 1976 and in 1983 the seedlings were planted in the exposition of Arboretum. During the following years, these plants were continuously monitored – tree decline and their condition were recorded. At the age of 40 years, measurements of diameters and heights were made. It was noted that trees grown from “space” seeds had significantly higher growth rates in height and diameter by the age of 40 than the control, with spruce from seeds that had been to space exceeding the control in diameter by 1 cm and in height by 3 m. However, trees grown from “space” seeds had a predominance of weak condition plants, with 17% more plants than the control, and a 38% higher dieback than the control. This can be interpreted as a distant consequence of the effects of stresses produced by experimental seeds in space.