100 !I

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DOUGL8S-FIR

100

TREE PRQGENY TEST

OBJECT IVES AND ESTABL ISHMENT !I

By

Boyd c. Wilson

Forest Geneticist

Washington State Department of Natural Resources and

Roy R. Si Jen

Principal Plant Geneticist

U. S. Forest Service

Ha rch

28, 1970

The purpose of this paper is to Inform interested people that such a study is in existence. The initiation and progress of this study netrl in its 6th year is described.

The authors would I ike to express their appreciation to the Northwest

Christmas Tree Association for its interest and cooperation. It is for

Christmas tree grONers that this study was Initiated and only through the cooperation of the Association could SJch a study have been carried on successfully.

OBJECTIVES

Good quality Douglas-fir Christmas trees have always been at a pre­ mium. The natural variation present in this species makes it necessary to apply cultural practices such as shearing a11d pruning to get the qua I ity and uniformity of trees desired. Even then, individual trees respond differently to these practices. Some, when she;ired, respond by filling in completely with side branches while others do not. Some trees require heavy shearing, others pract lcally none.

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This Information was prepared for distribution at the Christmas Tree

GrONers' Short Course, March

28, 1970, at the Alderbrook Inn, Union,

Washington. Washington State Department of Natural Resources, Forest

Land Management Division Contribution No.

124.

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The ideal Christmas tree would be one that would assume perfect form, color, density, etc. without cultural treatment. The trees resulting from present sources of seed are quite variable. If a source of seed could be found. that would consistently produce trees of good form with a minimum of cultural treatment, the cost of gr""1ing Christmas trees would be greatly reduced and the qua I i ty increased.

In May,

1964, it was suggested that a way of quickly producing better

Christmas tree seed might be to progeny test a number of open-pollinated trees and use seed from the best trees for further Christmas tree planting.

This plan was initiated by the Department of Natural Resources and the U. s.

Forest Service in the fal I of

1964.

The U. s. F. S. selected seed from

60

Dougl<!s-fir trees in the Corvallis, Oregon areil and the DNR collected seed from

61 trees in the Shelton, Washington area. The aim was to select

Douglas-fir parent trees completely at random. The scientific evidence that good Christmas tree parents could be selected at ages

25 to

50 based on their physical characteristics was very weak. In addition, if only carefully selected trees were included in this study, a measure of the existing population would not be available and there would be no idea of h""1 much gain could be made using this tree improvement method.

NURSERY

The seed from the selective open-pollinated parents were S""1n in the spring,

1965.

The Washington selections were gr""1n at the Webster Nursery, and the Corvallis selections at the Forestry Sciences Laboratory on the

Oregon State University campus in Corvallis.

FIELD TESTING

In the fall of

1966, the seedlings were two years old and ready for field planting. The Northwest Christmas Tree Association agreed to help with the field planting. Eight members of the association, five In Oregon

-3and three in Washington, agreed to establish and care for a field plantation on their· lands. Some nursery losses had occurred, but

50 fami 1 ies from each state were field planted in three replications at each of the eight locations. The size of the field plantation was approximately

90 feet by

250 feet. In each of the repl I cations, there was one family represented by a rat1 of three trees. Therefore, each grower had nine trees of each family in his plantation or a total of

900 trees.

The grat1e r agreed to ca re for the plantat I on, in 1 ud i ng shearing, pruning and measurement of the trees, The ground on each plantation was to be bare and Atrazine was applied to nearly all plantations in the spring of the first grat1lng season.

Boyd Wi 1 son and Roy S'i len agreed to supply the trees for this study, properly identified and ready for planting, and to supply the planting design. Their responsibilities also were to analyze the data which resulted from this study and make the results available to all members of the Nortl'Mest Christmas Tree Association.

The brief diagram of the study is shO'/n on the attached page,

RESULTS

The trees a re only

5 yea rs old at the present time and have been sheared for the first time during the spring of

1970.

It is, therefore, difficult to say positively which families are going to produce the best

Christmas trees.

It is very evident, hat1ever, that tremendous differences exist between families. Some families are consistently good from plantation to plantation.

Others are consistently poor. On the other han , some fami 1 ies are out­ standing in one location yet do very poorly on another plantation.

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It is also very evident that the quality of the Christmas trees have

I ittle relation to the appearance of the parent tree. Indications are that some of the best Christmas trees have been produced by some of the most unlikely looking parents. At the present time, it appears that the best way to evaluate a good Christmas tree parent is to grow seedlings from that parent.

DOUGLAS-FIR

100

TREE PROGENY TEST

CONES

SELECT PARENT TREES

FIELD PLANTATIONS

3

In Washington

5

In Oregon

Each plantation contains three replications. Each replication co tains a rCA-1 of three trees from each family. There a re

50 families fro,m Washing• ton and

50 families from

Oregon.

REPLICATIONS

11 111

300

TREES

300

REES

300

REES

Based on field performance of families, more seed will be collected from the best parents.

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