Norway Spruce

Seed sourcing in Norway spruce has changed over time with early UK plantings often originating from Northern Romania (toplita). These sources are no longer accessible and so select stand or orchard material from other European states is now the main source. Some provenance are particularly favoured for Christmas trees for their form and high branching levels.  Care should be taken when selecting plants for forestry purposes that these zones are avoided.

There were no existing or planned UK Norway spruce seed orchards until 2021. The Co-op has been actively addressing this supply gap through a national programme of Plus Tree selection and grafting (2021-2025) to gather the resources to create new orchards.

We completed the Plus Tree programme in March 2025. The best trees from the best stands have been selected  from right across the UK to ensure a range of climatic and site conditions are represented;  The grafted trees have now been dispatched to our members to create new seed orchards.  The orchards will act as a dual purpose resource; We expect to see improved seed being produced commercially within  5-6 years; They will also act as a clonal archive and breeding population comprising 246 individuals. The first phase of breeding will involve progeny testing of half sibling seeds (produced from open pollinated orchards) in field trials and later will move on to controlled pollinations using the best parents.

As with the Douglas fir programme, until such time as the Co-op is able to supply improved seed to the nursery sector from its new orchards, we are aiming to provide updated recommendations to the industry on the best commercially available seed sources to use in UK conditions. In 2021 we set up a field trial  to test 16  different provenances as shown in the table below. The first research data on performance are scheduled to be collected at years 8, 12, 16 & 20.