stubbning

Stubbning is a term used in Swedish to describe the act of creating stubs or short remaining trunks in various domains. The concept spans forestry, horticulture, and software engineering, where it denotes different yet related practices: leaving or forming shortened remains of plant material or simulating parts of a system for testing.

In forestry and land management, stubbning refers to cutting vegetation down to shortened stumps after harvest or clearing, leaving the stumps in place. The practice can facilitate subsequent land management by reducing biomass, managing regrowth in some species, and enabling reselection or regeneration strategies. Methods vary with species and objectives, and decisions consider safety, pest and disease risk, soil stability, and regrowth potential.

In horticulture, stubbning denotes pruning where branches or leaders are trimmed back to stubs to shape plants, reset growth, or rejuvenate aging shrubs and fruit trees. It is used as a technique within pruning plans to achieve desired plant architecture and to promote uniform regrowth.

In software engineering, stubbning (stubbing) is the creation of stub components or functions that imitate real modules during testing. Stubs provide simple, predictable behavior, enabling unit tests to run in isolation and allowing developers to verify interface contracts and integration points before full implementation.

Etymology: from the English word stub and the Swedish gerund -ning. The term is primarily used in Swedish-language contexts, with translated forms in bilingual technical writing.