Influence of Four Spacings between Trees and Four Samplings Heights on Selected Wood Quality Attributes of White Spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss)

Abstract

Four Picea glauca (Moench) Voss trees grown at each of four square spacing intensities between trees: 1.2 m, 1.8 m, 4.3 m, and 6.1 m in a plantation established in 1967 in the Petawawa Research Forest, Ontario, Canada (lat. 45.59° N, long. 77.25° W, elev. 168 m) and sampled at four different heights (1.3 m, 4.3 m, 7.3 m, 10.3 m) were used to study the impact of spacing between trees and sampling height on nine wood quality attributes (ring width, ring density, tracheid length, tracheid diameter, latewood proportion, intra-ring density variation, ring area, earlywood width, and latewood width). In the juvenile wood, ring width was wider and ring density higher than in the mature wood. Tracheid length was longer and tracheid diameter wider in the mature wood compared to the juvenile wood. The variation of ring density between the two wood zones was limited, and latewood proportion did not show any difference with wood zone. Sampling height induced variation in more wood quality attributes than did spacing. Except for growth rate, spacing between trees did not significantly impact wood quality attributes. Most of these variations were registered between widely different spacings.