Purpose. To investigate growth patterns of 9-year-old energy plantations of four poplar clones established on fresh gray forest soils of the Western Forest-Steppe in terms of feasibility of producing raw energy feedstock and to find out the optimal harvesting timing.Methods. The plantations were established by planting woody cuttings of the following clones: ‘Druzhba’ (P. trichocarpa × P. laurifolia), ‘P. canadensis × P. balsamifera’, ‘Strilopodibna’ (P. ×euramericana × P. pyramidalis) and ‘Tronko’ (P. × euramericana). The planting design was 2.0 × 0.8 m.Results. The highest survival of 7-year-old plants marked ‘Tronko’ (88 %) and ‘Druzhba’ (86 %) clones and the smallest ‘P. canadensis × P. balsamifera’(78 %). The ‘Druzhba’ cultivar had the highest average height (10.3±0.33 m). The rest of the clones practically did not differ in terms of their height, which varied from 9.5±0.46 m to 9.8±0.36 m. The largest value of average tree diameter (7.4±0.35 cm) was found in the ‘P. canadensis × P. balsamifera’ clone, which at the same time showed the smallest survival. The rest of the studied clones in terms of average diameter differed insignificantly (from 6.5±0.27 cm to 6.8±0.32 cm). At the age of 7-year-old, the highest feedstock yield marked the stands of ‘P. canadensis × P. balsamifera’ (113 m3/ha) and ‘Druzhba’ (122 m3/ha) clones. In plantations of ‘Tronko’, yield amounted to 105 m3/ha and in the ‘Strilopodibna’ to 93 m3/ha. Thus, their 7-year-old plantations produced the feedstock yield from 13.3 to 17.4 m3/ha per year. For the next 2 years, there was a significant mortality of the trees of the clones ‘Tronko’ and ‘P. canadensis × P. balsamifera’, which negatively affected their stock records. The largest stock showed ‘Druzhba’ clone (139 m3/ha). The average change in the stock and the overall productivity of all clones turned out to be less in 9-year-old plantations as compared with 7-year-old ones. This indicates that under the conditions of the experiment, the optimal age of cutting poplar stands with an initial planting density of about 6 000 trees per 1 hectare is 6 to 7 years. The highest productivity was shown by ‘Druzhba’ plantation with the value of 122 m3/ha, followed by ‘P. canadensis × P. balsamifera’ (113 m3/ha), ‘Tronko’ (105 m3/ha), ‘Strilopodibna’ (93 m3/ha), that in terms of energy yield varied from 96.7 to 127.9 MJ per 1 ha in a year.Conclusions. On gray forest soils of the Western Forest-Steppe of Ukraine, it is advisable to establish energy plantations of all four clones under investigation with the rotation age from 6 to 7 years. ‘Druzhba’ cultivar marked high productivity indicators, with the 7-year-old plantation accumulated, on the average, 17.4 m3/ha of wood per year, which is equivalent to 8.74 tons of coal, 3.08 tons of diesel fuel and 2.56 tons of natural gas.