An assessment of potential of hybrid poplar for planting in the Virginia Piedmont

• Published in: New forests Vol. 48; no. 4; pp. 479 - 490
• Main Authors: Burkhart, Harold E., Brunner, Amy M., Stanton, Brian J., Shuren, Richard A., Amateis, Ralph L., Creighton, Jerre L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-07-2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Biomedical and Life Sciences; Disease resistance; Flowers & plants; Forestry; Frost; Frost resistance; Growing season; Hybridization; Life Sciences; Planting; Poplar; Rust fungi; Seasons; Stem canker; Taxa; Variance analysis; United States > US; Virginia; Genetic effects; Disease resistance; Yield; Frost tolerance; Growth
• ISSN: 0169-4286; 1573-5095
• DOI: 10.1007/s11056-017-9576-6

Poplar species grow well across the temperate zone, but hybrid varieties have not previously been evaluated for planting in the Virginia Piedmont region. The top 12 clones in height growth and rust resistance from a screening trial involving 98 hybrid poplar varieties of three taxa (
Populus deltoides
 × 
P. maximowiczii
, DxM;
P. deltoides
 × 
P. nigra
, DxN;
P. deltoides
 × 
P. trichocarpa,
DxT) were selected for planting in replicated yield trials at two locations in the Virginia Piedmont. Results through the first four growing seasons showed that the DxM taxon had the most rapid height development. It was, however, the taxon most affected by a late spring frost at the Appomattox-Buckingham State Forest site and by
Septoria
stem canker at the Reynolds Homestead site. Analysis of variance of clonal and location effects showed highly significant differences among replicates within location and among clones within taxon. Among seven clones within the DxM taxon, pairwise comparison tests of height growth identified two groups: a group of four better clones that were significantly different (
p
 = 0.05) from a second group of three. These early results suggest that multi-selection criteria, including growth, disease and frost resistance, are important when developing hybrid poplar clones for planting in the Piedmont region.