Shrub willow (Salix spp.) has been a focus of international efforts to develop renewable alternatives for fossil fuels and to sequester carbon from earth’s atmosphere. In the central Appalachian region of the eastern U.S., short rotation willow could be grown on the significant amount of reclaimed mine land, which would promote economic opportunities for these lands. The objective of this study was to examine various establishment treatments designed to overcome common properties of mine soils: high rock fragment content that causes planting difficulties and reduced water- and nutrient-availability. Three shrub willow clones (Fish Creek, Preble, and SX61) were planted using six planting/fertilizer treatments. The planting treatments compared a horizontal planting method to traditional vertical planting of cuttings. Fertilizer treatments compared no fertilization to controlled release and traditional fertilizer at a rate of 140 kg N ha⁻¹. After two growing seasons, Preble outperformed the others in both survival and production but the influence of fertilizer treatments was inconsistent and varied by clone. Survival and growth for horizontally-planted cuttings was 46% relative to vertically planted cuttings at 83%. Results of this study will be used to direct future establishment practices for willow on reclaimed mine soils in West Virginia.

灌木柳（柳spp。）一直是国际努力的重点，以开发化石燃料的可再生替代品并从地球大气中隔离碳。在美国东部的中部阿巴拉契亚地区，可能会在大量开垦的矿山土地上种植短轮伐柳，这将为这些土地带来经济机会。这项研究的目的是研究旨在克服矿山土壤共同特性的各种处理方法：高碎石含量会导致种植困难并降低水和养分的利用率。使用六种种植/肥料处理方法种植了三个灌木柳克隆（Fish Creek，Preble和SX61）。种植方法将水平种植方法与传统的cutting插垂直种植方法进行了比较。^-1。在两个生长季节之后，Preble在生存和生产方面均胜过其他品种，但肥料处理的影响并不一致，且因克隆而异。水平种植的vertically插的成活率和生长率分别为46％和83％。这项研究的结果将用于指导西弗吉尼亚州在已开采的矿山土壤上建立柳树的未来实践。