In Finland, under nursery conditions hybrid aspen may continue their shoot growth until early September. Thus,frost hardening is usually delayed. To solve this problem, We used a three-week period of short-day (SD) treatment between late July and mid-August. During autumn after frost exposure,frost hardiness (FH) Was assessed three times with a stem-browning test. The resuits showed that after SD treatment shoot growth ceased and FH increased when compared to untreated hybrid aspen. Furthermore,the height of SD-treated hybrid aspen varied much less than that of the control plants. We conclude that SD treatment in the nursery during the growing period can be used as a supplementary method for producing well-hardened and uniform hybrid aspen plants.