Clonal provenance variation of Populus alba Linn. in nursery

Abstract

Cuttings were collected from different provenances of Populus alba in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir during 1999-2000. These were raised in the nursery of Dr. Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan as a mother nursery stock. From them cuttings were taken in the year 2001 and they were planted in nursery for this provenance trial. Analysis of variation revealed highly significant differences among different provenances for height, basal diameter, number of leaves, leaf area, internodal length, root fresh weight, root dry weight, shoot fresh weight and shoot dry weight under nursery conditions. For the seedling traits provenance-Tirith (P17) excelled for height, basal diameter, leaf area, internodal length, root fresh weight, root dry weight, shoot fresh weight and shoot dry weight. Tabo provenance (P21) recorded minimum value for height, leaf area and internodal length whereas, Holdoo (P13) for number of leaves. Variability and genetic estimates revealed high heritability for seedling height, basal diameter, root fresh weight, and root dry weight. Heritability value was found low for number of branches. Divergence (D2) studies indicated remarkable diversity among 26 provenances of P. alba. Sikibba (P10) and Tamrot (P12) were considered most diverse populations (D2 value 57771.20). Correlation studies illustrated significant positive correlation between different traits, viz., height, basal diameter, number of leaves, internodal length, root fresh weight, root dry weight, shoot fresh weight and shoot dry weight.