The trees in the seed orchard have a much wider spacing than those in normal plantations. For most species a final spacing, i.e. after rouging, of ≈ 10 meter is preferred. That corresponds to 100 trees per hectare. The initial spacing should be designed with the expected thinning in mind. If the trees are initially planted in 4 trees plot, with expected 3 of them plus may be 50% of the families to be culled, then a planting stock of 800 trees per hectare should be used, i.e. a spacing of 2.5 × 5 meter.
