what is the most productive type of material for reproduction in biomass production? generally is used for poplar SRF - cuttings, seedlings and sits (rods). Thanks.
Dear Danila Poplar cuttings have a good propagation and regeneration capacity, You may produce a huge biomass through its cuttings instead of seedlings.
I can recommend you key publication on Black locust in-vitro propagation: Micropropagation of black locust (robinia pseudoacacia l.) J. Zhang, Y. Liu and H. Wang
the best propagation material depends on tree species (willow and poplar, robinia and eucalypts, alders).
For poplars and willows, 20 cm long stem cuttings are very simple to produce and handling, commonly used and cost effective. You have to pay attention on the cuttings hydration, soaking them into fresh water before planting for almost 24 hours. Generally the rooting percentage is very high, around 95% if proper soil moisture is assured throughout precipitation or irrigation. See Paris et al, 2011.
Rods are also used for poplars and willows. I know colleagues of mine using this method in Italy. Unfortunately, as far as I know, any English papers is available on this issue. If interested, you can contact Dr. Gianni Facciotto ([email protected]), Poplar research Inst., Italy, on this issue.
Another interesting issue is the cutting length. It looks like that longer stem cuttings do better on marginal sandy soils, with low nutrient contents and lower soil moisture. See the following paper: Friedrich Vigl, Boris Rewald, 2014. Size matters? – The diverging influence of cutting length on growth and allometry of two Salicaceae clones. Biomass and Bioenergy 6 0, ( 2 0 1 4 ): 1 3 0-1 3 6.
For robinia, root cuttings would be the best propagation material, but they are not very cost effective, because the nursery production of massive propagation is very high, higher than 1 year bare root seedlings, that are the most common planting materials in Italy.
For eucalypts, both stem cuttings and seedlings are cost effective for the planation establishment. It depends very much of the local commercial use of eucalypts planations. In my country, where eucalypts are not any more vey used, the most common planting material is 1 year seedlings, but in other countries like Portugal and Brazil, with wide areas planted with eucalypts, rooted stem or micro-propagated cuttings are very much used.
Alders are also emerging species for SRF planations under temperate conditions. In Italy there is some new research activity on Alnus cordata, endemic to southern Italy: it is fast growing, drought adapted, and nitrogen fixing. See attached Poster _IPC_Alnus. As far I know, agamic propagation would be possible for alders, but not commercially developed.
Hope the above information can be useful for you. I am available for any other further info you might need.
I agree with the former comments. For willows and poplar, cuttings are the most productive materials and are used for agricultural application, too. If you will cultivate the cuttings in climate chamber or greenhouse, you should kill all potential stages of pest insects (e.g. aphid eggs) by a bath with pyrethrum-solution! Otherwise you will have a hard time to keep the willow-cuttings clean of pest insects. Furthermore, for prevention of pest insect outbreaks, use natural enemies as Chrysoperla carnea and Hypoaspis persimilis continuously every second week.
I have described this procedure in the material and methods part of my two willow papers.
in Romania we have some different results about all type of reproduction material, so for different density (1333 - 2667 trees/ha), and different cycle we obtained that seedlings and rods (sits) are higher than cuttings of Max 4.