Radial variation of wood properties of eight years-old fast-growing teak (Tectona grandis - Platinum teak wood)

Abstract

The objective of this research was to determine the wood basic properties of eight years-old fast-growing teakwood (Tectona grandis – Platinum teak wood), in the radial direction of the stem. The anatomical features of the examined teak wood showed semi-ring porous and in general, they had a similarity to those of the conventional teak wood. The ray cell proportion was increased along with the increased distance from the pith area. The size of vessel cell tended to change from pith to the outer part. The radial (R) and tangential (T) shrinkage had improvement compared to those of five years-old Platinum teak wood. The R and T shrinkages were 2.89% and 6.2%, respectively. The present results suggested that wood properties of eight years-old Platinum teak wood is more stable than those of five years-old as reported in the previous study. The compression strength was also increased during the increase of growth age. The values of compression perpendicular and parallel to the grain were 76.74 kg/cm2 and 367.9 kg/cm2, respectively. The increasing of the radial properties indicated that eight years-old Platinum teak wood was still in juvenile stage.