Production of Radiata Pine Cuttings for Seed Orchard Establishment

Abstract

SUMMARY Since grafted stock may develop incompatibility symptoms it is preferable to use rooted cuttings for establishment of clonal seed orchards of Pinns radiata. Details of the propagating bed system and cultural procedures used for propagating mature clones in Gippsland, Victoria are described. Cuttings were taken from grafted ramets of clones whose ortets were between 20 and 89 years old. Of 5,000 cuttings set in 1974, 63 per cent produced plantable stock after 12 months. The proportion produced by different clones varied from 15 to 91 per cent and part of this variation was ascribed to a negative relationship with ortet age. Comparison of production data over a three year period showed that clonal differences were repeatable (mean r2 = 0.48) and so data from an initial setting can be used to adjust numbers for subsequent settings of the same clone. Production cost of each plantable cutting was estimated to be $0.88 in 1974/75.