This study was carried out in nurseries in the State of Minas Gerais to evaluate the quality of tree seedlings destined to urban areas. Twelve nurseries were evaluated; half of them run by public institutions and the other half were private nurseries. The results showed that, in general, there is not a concern with quality of seedling, which is proven by the high percentages of low quality seedlings. Only plants with mechanical injuries and exposed roots had low off standard percentages. In both public and private nurseries, the problems that most contributed for low quality seedlings are height bellow recommended and lack of pruning for tree conduction and formation. Therefore, efforts for quality improvement must first be put on these characteristics. Furthermore, the analyses showed that the greatest part of the problems is due to employee's lack of training and necessary skills to the production of good seedlings, especially in private nurseries, where the seedlings produced had poorer quality compared to the ones produced in public nurseries.
Urban tree; seedling; quality
