The paper deals with the relationships between macronutrients, ground vegetation and tree crop on a drained peatland area in Central Finland. The former herb-rich spruce swamp was drained in 1930s. The Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) stand was established by planting under a nurse crop of birch, which was removed later.
There was a negative correlation between the thickness of the peat layer and the volume and mean height of the growing stock. This was found to depend on the negative correlation prevailing between the potassium content of the topmost peat layer and the thickness of the peat cover. The deficiency of potassium is clearly discernible as deficiency symptoms in the needles, the intensity of which showed a strong correlation with the stand characteristics studied. Among the nutrient characteristics of the topmost peat layer, total potassium and the N/K and P/K ratios showed the closest correlation with the stand characteristics. The communities into which the ground vegetation was divided differed from each other with regard to the calcium content of the peat substrate.
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