Common walnut (Juglans regia L.) wood characteristics in two Italian plantations

• Published in: Annals of Silvicultural Research Vol. 43; no. 1; pp. 35 - 40
• Main Authors: Gaetano Castro, Sara Bergante, Dalila Sansone, Caludio Bidini, Francesco Pelleri
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l'analisi dell'economia agraria - Research Centre for Forestry and Wood 01-06-2019
• Subjects: polycyclic plantations; thinning; walnut; wood characteristics
• ISSN: 2284-354X
• DOI: 10.12899/asr-1818

The Woodnat project (H2020) has the goal of identifying the problems that led to poor yields in walnut plantations established under the financial support of EU 2080/92 Regulation and Rural Development Programme, and of improving the market demand for smaller assortments. Some of the plantations monitored in the framework of the project needed thinning: one,  an experimental stand with 5 plots with different layouts and species established in 1994, was thinned in spring 2018; in a second one, a polycyclic plantation established in 1996 with common walnut, hybrid poplar and nurse trees, the walnut was thinned in spring 2017.  At thinning, sample disks were taken at the base of 5 trees randomly selected at each site for the determination of density and shrinkage in the radial, tangential and longitudinal direction. The average density was 0.52g/cm3; the average tangential shrinkage was 12%, while the average radial shrinkage was 6.7%. There were differences in behaviour between the samples from the two sites, probably due to different vegetal materials, age of the plantations and cultivation models.