Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) is one of the major tree species (49 %) in the 177,000 ha sized Palatinate Forest. The traditional silvicultural treatment (high initial numbers, late tending, low thinning) results in stands, that are susceptible to snow and that have unsatisfactory stem dimensions at harvesting age. In 1989 experimental plots were laid out on four different locations in the Palatinate Forest with the following device:
Dominant Standard Treatment
height
h100 (m)
8,0 No special treatment Selection of 100 "future"-
of "future"-trees; trees/ha; cutting of
cutting of low quality competing trees around
and pending trees the "future"-trees;
Variant II
(pruning to 3 m height)
10,0 Variant I (pruning to 5 m
height)
12,5 Selection of 200 Selective cutting of
"future"-trees/ha; competing trees
cutting of competing
trees; pruning to
5 m height
15,0 Cutting of competing Cutting of competing
trees continued trees continued
17,5 Treatment as above Treatment as above
pruning to 10 m height
20,0 Treatment as above Treatment as above
pruning to 10 m height
Preliminary results (1994)
1 The "future"-trees responded to early selection and tending with annual diameter growth of 0.8 cm compared with the standard (0.6 cm).
2 The h/d-value of "future"-trees was reduced from 82 to 74 indicating increased stability.
3 The diameter increment of "future"-trees seems to be independent on the site index of the specific location.
Key words: Scots pine, future-tree, growing space enlargement.
Correspondence: Phan Hoang Dong, Forest Research Institute Rheinland-Pfalz, Hauptstraße 16, 67705 Trippstadt, Germany
Telefax: +49-6306-2821