Research Branch Report No. 146

Growth of Pinus radiata trees from seed orchard and routine seed sources at four locations.  L. A. Pederick.  November 1979.  14 pp. (unpubl.)

SUMMARY

Pinus radiata progeny were established in 1970 at four locations in Victoria (Rennick, Warrenbayne, Daylesford and Narbethong) with seedlings of individual families derived as follows:

  1. open pollinated polycross seeds from 15 clones in the Korweinguboora seed orchard.
  2. polycross seeds of 11 clones produced by controlled pollination with a pollen mix.
  3. a routine seed collection.
  4. seeds from a stand in Chile.

The trials at Rennick and Warrenbayne were measured 6 years after planting, and in this report these results are compared with the 8-year results from Daylesford and Narbethong, which were slower growing trials.

Seed orchard stock grew faster than routine stock at three of the four locations. Its superiority in volume in the separate trials ranged from -10% to +124%. This variation is too great for an average figure to be meaningful and maybe a consequence of differences in the methods by which control plants were obtained from the nursery. In all cases orchard stock was a straight or straighter than routine stock, its superiority varied from 1% to 22%, and tended to have thinner branches and fewer forks and ramicorns.

The seed orchard stock also grew faster than the Chilean plants. It was larger in 5 out of 7 separate trials, ranging from -4% to +28% with an average superiority of about 8%. There was little difference between their scores for stem and branch form.

Considerable variation was found among the individual tree families. Five orchard stock families yielded relative growth rates of over 10% greater than the average for the trials, while routine plants were ranked low. The growth rate of some families was stable, that is, they grew at a similar relative growth rate in all trials; but others varied and were responsible for a significant genotype x location interaction.

An estimate of the breeding value of the parent clones has been prepared based on the vigour, stability and growth rate, trunk straightness and branch thickness of the progeny.

Also published:

Pederick, L.A. (1977)  Growth of Pinus radiata trees from orchard and routine seed sources at four locations.  3rd Int. Congr. Soc. for the Adv. of Breed. Res. in Asia and Oceania (SABRAO), Canberra, 1977. Plant. Breed. Pap. 13, pp. 3-9.