What Eucalyptus logs can tell...

"Plus tree : a phenotype judged, but not yet proven by progeny test, to be unusually superior in some quality or qualities such as an exceptional growth rate relative to the site, desirable growth habit, high wood quality, exceptional apparent resistance to disease and insect attack or to other adverse locality factors."

Nieuwenhuis, M. (2000) Terminology of Forest Management Planning. IUFRO World Series, Vienna.

Fig. 1: Example of Eucalyptus plus tree as source of information on silviculture, wood properties, tree genetics and stand dynamics. (Click image to enlarge, 1024 x 768 px)

"Genetic gains derived from the incorporation of tree genetic improvement criteria to silvicultural management at stand level have been too much overlooked. The potential is tremendous and this incorporation is the fastest way to obtain a significant level of genetic improvement. Besides those activities directly related to regeneration, which automatically include harvest operations, the best way to apply genetics to silviculture is through those process of thinning, pruning and, less impacting, fertilisation. Thinning especially is the most suitable way to obtain quick applied genetic results.

The most common mistake of practical forestry around the world is to establish or let grow without intervention to harvest age tree stands in conditions of excessive stocking per surface unit. Insufficient spacing is one of the main limiting factors for tree growth, and in such a way its genetic potential cannot be expressed completely. Consequently, dasonomic practices involving thinning are essential tools if a maximum of genetic gain is to be obtained from improved tree strains. There is a question that will always be recurrent: Which is the optimal spacing for each tree species and location? But the base idea to answer that question will always be recurrent aswell: that one giving enough room for a tree to grow and express its potential to the fullest."

Bruce Zobel & John Talbert (1984) Applied Forest Tree Improvement. John Wiley & Sons Inc, NY

Also in Eucalyptologics...

Cold hardy Eucalyptus timber production in Galicia (NW Spain)

Fig. 2: Cold temperate Eucalyptus pulpwood harvest operations in Galicia


Cold hardy Eucalyptus forestry in Galicia (II): when snow comes...

Fig. 3: Winter view of a 10 year old frost tolerant Eucalyptus cultivated forest at 800 m above sea level in Galicia (Northwestern Spain).


Eucalyptus Seed: Harvest it Right

Fig. 4: Different simultaneous stages of the reproductive cycle and seed maturation process in a standing Snow Gum Eucalyptus tree.


Eucalyptus from seed: some key concepts

Fig. 5: Examples of cold hardy Eucalyptus forestry seedling commercial nursery stock for afforestation.

Contact GIT Forestry Consulting - Eucalyptologics

GIT's Eucalyptology Topics

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© 2008 Gustavo Iglesias Trabado. Please contact us if you want to use all or part of this text and photography elsewhere. We like to share, but we do not like rudeness.