Relationship between first-season free growth components and later field height growth in maritime pine (Pinuspinaster)

Abstract

Pinuspinaster Ait. seedlings from 15 families were grown under conditions designed to accelerate growth for 21 weeks in their first season. Fifteen height growth components were assessed and compared with total height, height growth pattern, and height growth components of trees of the same families grown for 6 years on a sandy moorland site. Growth-accelerating conditions induced the formation of typical adult-like apical buds. Principal components analysis on the weekly height increments during the first growing season showed that 76% of the overall between-family variation could be attributed to the first two components. Families that were extremely poly cyclic and monocyclic in the field were separated on the graph of the two principal components. Among the 15 growth components assessed during the first growing season, 3 showed a significant correlation with total height at 6 years of age: mean stem unit length, asymptotic total height value of the Richards growth function, and the first principal component, i.e., height growth rates during the early stages of development. Mean stem unit length was the component that showed the highest stability between the first and the fifth growing seasons. Between 30 and 72% of the variation of total height (38–64% of the variation of secondary shoot length) at age 6 could be predicted by multiple regression, with a combination of two or three components assessed in the first season.